Positive Peer Pressure - Expert's View

            Positive peer pressure is prevalent at Michigan State University, health educators say.

             Allyson Rogers, who has a Master of Arts in Health and Risk Communication said that peers are influencing one another to make healthy decisions.

           “I definitely think we’re seeing that adults and those in student life are being more assertive going into adulthood,“ said Rogers, a Health Promotion & Communication Specialist with Olin Student Health Services at MSU.          

               The Student Health Services uses the data collected from the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) survey to help MSU students and parents better understand health trends, and risks.

              According to the spring 2012 MSU Student Health Assessment, only 24.1 percent of students judge health information from friends to be believable.

            Students believe health educators and health center medical staff to be nearly 88 percent believable.

            Interestingly though, friends were still the fourth most-commonly identified source of health information (50.4 percent).

            So while students believe their peers are only 25 percent believable, they turn to one another for health information 50 percent of the time. Why?

            Rogers said that students turn to friends out of ease of access and because they feel more comfortable discussing sensitive health topics with them.