WHAT'S THE PLAN?

Characters

The material in this section is for use with the Managing Negative Peer Influence session. Negative peer influence takes various forms and young people may need assistance to identify and apply strategies to manage negative peer influence while celebrating with friends. For each of the characters below, there is a negative peer influence scenario with activity sheet and a comic strip showing the obstacles each character faces trying to put their safe celebrating strategies into action.

	Eddie Has regular unsupervised and poorly planned celebrations involving alcohol binges. He has no skills in negotiating limits with peers and celebrations often become violent and unpleasant.

	Jess Jess celebrates in nightclubs with friends who binge on alcohol and other drugs. She is reluctantly forced to baby-sit intoxicated friends. Jess experiences social embarrassment from her friends’ behaviour and damaged relationships with parents.

	Joe Has celebrations involving deliberately dangerous driving and over-crowded cars. He attends poorly organised and supervised parties and experiences problems with gatecrashers, property damage and violence.

	Lauren Has unsupervised celebrations involving drug & alcohol binges. She is a reluctant passenger of a deliberatley dangerous driver and has limited skills in negotiating peer pressure and setting personal limits.

	Bradley Bradley has unsupervised outdoor celebrations involving drug and alcohol binges. He is a reluctant passenger of a drink driver. Bradley is experiencing financial problems and damaged family relationships resulting from crashing a car while drugged.

	Anna Anna has clearly defined personal limits and refuses risk. She has friends who support her choices and act as a support base. Anna experiences peer pressure resulting from her safe celebrating choices.

	Alex Alex clearly defines his personal limits and refuses risk. He is allowed greater freedom after demonstrating responsible celebrating behaviour. However, he does experience peer pressure to carry too many passengers.