The project "Friends are Friends, Pressure is Pressure" was classified as very good, relevant and useful. The teachers of the 10th-grade students who were in the centre of the initiative - students attending the Secondary School Jaime Cortesão and the Secondary School Infanta D. Maria - expressed their wish to repeat it in the next year and to extend it to all classes.
Professor Irma Brito is the coordinator of the project which aims at promoting among students the necessary autonomy to be able to resist peer pressure regarding health-threatening behaviour.
The professor of the ESEnfC refers that the moments of counselling, pedagogical games and sharing of experiences have also pleased the students who «usually like this model of health promotion» directed at them.
According to this teacher, «the results prove that the health promotion at the school level, specifically directed at teenagers, may be the appropriate strategy to promote healthy life styles and prevent drug abuse».
This project, which seeks to promote a positive attitude among teenagers, promoting their autonomy, social coexistence and responsibility, has proved to be very useful. An example of this is the fact that the majority of the targeted students agreed on the challenge of «organising alcohol-free parties in the upcoming year».
The project "Friends are Friends, Pressure is Pressure" is organised by students of the ESEnfC, within the scope of a wider Project, the "Workshop of Expressivity" (Group of Peer Education in Health), of the Student Association.
It is observable that same-gendered and same-aged peers from a similar socio-economic background manage to get faster to the target group faster, as health promoting messages are better accepted when they come from people with similar characteristics.
The project "Friends are Friends, Pressure is Pressure" focuses on the topics sexuality, alcohol, drugs, smoking and eating.
