#PeerPressure

A new wave of research and social commentary is upending long-held assumptions that drinking alcohol is a shortcut to popularity, confidence, or being “cool.” As reflected in a recent reflection piece from Psychology Today titled “I Thought Drinking Made Me Cool. I Was Wrong” (published July 2025), growing numbers of young people, health professionals, and marketing analysts are scrutinizing the links between alcohol, peer pressure, and self-image. As Thai society continues to grapple with its own evolving drinking culture, these insights hold timely lessons for youth, educators, and policymakers alike.

Recent insights from leading experts are shaking up long-held assumptions about the roots of youth delinquency, emphasizing that parental influence—while crucial—is not the sole factor determining whether children turn to crime. At a parent support meeting hosted by the Ammar Empowerment Network, a management professor from the University of the West Indies argued that society is too quick to blame parents for their children’s misdeeds, overlooking the complex interplay of environment, peer influence, and broader social context (“Parents ‘not always at fault’”, Nation News, July 2025).

A new study from The University of Texas at Arlington has shed light on how peer pressure and mistaken beliefs about campus drinking culture are fueling risky alcohol consumption among college students—insights that carry significant lessons for university communities around the globe, including Thailand. The research, published in the journal Substance Use & Misuse, finds that students tend to overestimate how much their peers drink, which in turn drives up their own alcohol intake and increases the risk of academic, social, and health consequences. Crucially, the researchers also identified simple strategies that can empower students to resist this pressure and reduce alcohol-related harm, even in environments where heavy drinking feels like the norm (neurosciencenews.com).