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Status symbols are prestige symbols that tell others that the person who has them is superior or has a higher status in the group than other group members.
During adolescence, status symbols serve four important functions:
- They tell others that the adolescent has a high or even a higher socioeconomic status than other members of the peer group.
- That the adolescent is superior in some achievement that is valued by the group.
- The adolescent is affiliated with the group and is an accepted member of it because of appearance or actions similar to those of other group members and the adolescent has a near adult status in society.
Smoking often begins in junior high school or even before. By the time boys and girls reach senior high school, smoking is a widespread practice for different social activities. Adolescents feel that they must conform to peer-group norms rather than to adult or institutional authority if they want others to identify them with the peer group and think of them as no longer children but near-adults.
Unlike adolescents of earlier generations, drinking has become a status symbol for girls as well as for boys. Drinking is a peer – group activity. The taste for liquor is developed during the adolescent years as is the tendency to regard drinking as an important symbol of group belonging.
Use of drugs begins as a peer-group activity, as adolescent’s progress through high school and into college, the use of drugs at parties and other social get-togethers becomes more frequent and more widespread – for girls as well as boys. Because drugs have status-symbol value. Many adolescents are motivated by a desire for independence from family restrictions by a desire to increase their social acceptance by conforming to the pattern of behavior set by leaders in the peer group or by a desire for adventure. That many adolescents are motivated to use drugs out of boredom is shown by the fact that use of drugs is greater in suburban than in urban areas.
Almost all adolescents will use drugs occasionally, out of curiosity or a desire to conform to the patterns of behavior that are popular among members of the crowd. But there are certain types of adolescents who are likely to become more than occasional users of drugs. Among such types are those who are dissatisfied with their home conditions; those who lack social acceptance in the prestigious crowds of their schools; and those who experience many problems characteristic of adolescence which they have not been able to cope with satisfactorily. Boys who belong to gangs tend to be the heaviest users of drugs. Girls, except those who belong to gangs, use drugs far less than boys.
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