Chapter 2 Effects on the Academic Performance of 1st Year Student in Patts

CHAPTER 2
Review of Related Literature

Alice Langholt, (2012), wrote: “Some of the main causes of peer pressure are related to age-appropriate behavior. Adolescents develop a strong desire to fit in with their peers and be accepted by them. This desire makes adolescent peer pressure tough to resist. Peer pressure occurs when group of people force each other to go along with certain beliefs and behaviors. The group approves of the followers and sometimes harshly disapproves of those who don’t fall in line. The consequences of being rejected by one’s peers are embarrassment and shame, both very negative emotions for teens. Simply agreeing with the group’s attitudes usually isn’t enough; teens have to prove themselves by backing their words with actions. Teens may be unwilling to speak up because they’re afraid to lose a friendship with one of these leaders or because they fear losing their status in the group.”

Further, Langholt affirms, “Teens with few boundaries or rules at home are far more prone to peer pressure than those with firm expectations and strict rules. Parents have a surprisingly strong influence on teens.” Parents who are involved in their children’s lives give their children the confidence to stand up to their peers. Teens don’t expect their peers top respect them for standing up for themselves, but most who do find that they are respected. If a group rejects a teen for resisting the pressure, that teen is often strong enough to find a different peer group that will be more positive.

Michelle Borba, (2012), shared, “Pals play an enormous part of our kids’ self-esteem, and research also reveals that who our kids support can affect their study habits and their overall academic success. The truth of the matter is that peer pressure can have both positive and negative consequences on a child’s education. If your child chooses friends who believe that education is important, chances are he/she will adopt those attitudes and put more emphasis into hitting the books harder and focusing more in class. On the flip side, if your child is best buddies with a kid who stays distracted during class, doesn’t turn in homework assignments, and rarely studies before a big test, chances are he/she will fall in line with their bad habbits.”

An Ohio State University study found that kids are more likely to have friends with future college plans if they have a warm, positive relationship with their parents. Hence, this study will include the parent’s support and encouragement as one of the variables in this research.

Borkar (2011) states that, “Peer pressure can be very trying for both teens and their parents. It is difficult to deal with situations whereby you are forced to try something that you might not necessarily want to, due to the pressure of “fitting in”. This seems like a compulsion, because if you do not do what peers demand of you, the fear of being alone is paramount. And that is one of the main reasons why people give in to peer pressure. If one looks at some of the statistics of peer pressure, one will be convinced of this fact. Peer pressure can happen at any time in our lives, but it affects adolescents and teens primarily, because most of them have not developed the ability to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong at their age. Thus, many teens fall under peer pressure and take to things that can only be termed as “bad habits” in our society”

Here are some statistics on Peer Pressure.
30% of teens are offered drugs in high schoold and middle school. (Adolescent Substance Abuse Knowledge Base)
3.1 million American teens smoke. (American Lung Association) Of these, 25% of 17 and 18 years old smoke daily.
The Kaiser Foundation states that near 50% of adolescents between the ages of 12 - 18 feel pressured into having sex in relationships.
Teens are infected by 4 million new STDs every year. (Allan Guttamacher Institute)
The National Household Survey states that the use of marijuana has risen by a staggering 275% from years '92-'97.
9.5% teens have tried some form of cocaine in their lives. (Adolescent Substance Abuse Knowledge Base)
32.2% teens try their firs drink before the age of 13. (Adolescent Substance Abuse Knowledge Base)
9% (14 years), 18% (15 - 17 Years), 22% (18 - 19 Years) of teens experience a pregnancy every year. (Communities Responding to the Challenge of Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention)
25% of teens have been involved in at least one episode of binge drinking. (The Center for Disease Control and Prevention)

For teenagers, it can seem very important to "fit in". Teens are very concerned about their images, and they are worried about what others think about them. As a result, peer pressure is very influential in mau teens' lives. Peer pressure is basically the influence that people your age have on you. For teenagers, it is the influence that other teens have on their behavior, dress, attitude and practices. Often, teenagers do what others are doing so that they can fit in - or at least not stand out. Teens like to do what their friends are doing, and be accepted. This peer pressure, though, can lead to undesirable behaviors. (Borkar, 2011)

The action to be done is one of the variables that counts off the top four variables enlisted by the researchers in this research because if the act or an invitation that seems to the student is also an interest to his part, surely enough that the student interest will arouse his ego to accept the invitation since it has emotional impact and it satisfies the curiosity and his interest. Deci and Ryan (1991) stated that "When an individual has autonomous reasons for engaging in an activity, he or she is likely to show greater initiative and persistence than when he or she feels controlled. Second, when an individual engage in an activity for autonomous reasons, he or she is likely to experience generally positive emotions, such as interest and enjoyment". Contrarily, Ryan and Connell (1989) reported that nonautonomous forms of regulation are likely to be associated negative and conflicted emotions.

Good planning and goal setting behavior positively affects performance on any task (Neubert, 1998). This means if the prioritization skill, he won't go with his friends if he is invited in chorus or surprise because he has prioritized his study than to go elsewhere. Hence if he will not accpet the invitation he could finish and eventually have a positive effect on the academic performance of a college student. But then again the other variable comes in again and effects the severity on how Peer pressure affects the study habits of a College Student.

Third variable that to be considered is the time. Time is necessary in invitations its essential tool to the study since students who are invited has time restraints thus, in this study time restraint is visible and viable because the students are exposed to Peers that are what you call "conscience maker buddy" (Tuazon, Aranas, Javier, Marites "Friends" p.15), therefore even though the student tied himself to finish once academic requirement he/she is conscience to his/her friend. Consequently the academic motivation is compromise too.

The last variable that is enlisted is Motivation, it is how his peer motivates him with pressure or not. It is why it has comparison or relativity on the next question wherein it is stated what is the difference if a student is invited by a peer with a pressure and an invitation without pressure at all. As stated by Ms. Colonia Remedios (General Psychology p. 127 1992) If their motivation has a sense of conscience build into their sentence of invitation it may persuade or convince once student to accept and if the motivation has to do with the curiosity of the invitee, he/she will eventually actually acknowledge the invitation. Therefore it is safe to say that if a peer invite his friend with right persuasion and right motivation they might accept the invitation, which may procrastinate student or to affect the student's study habits and lose the academic motivation that may cause the failure to pass the academic requirements on time and may fail to comply to the academic requirements.

The first variable of this study is the peer pressure, peer pressure must be identified in order to know the effects of peer pressure on a particular student.

Second variable is the study habits, if a college student is academically motivated or often to do so. It means bad peer pressure is not acting on them.

The third variable is presence of parents. The researchers found out that if parents are present the student is less more susceptible to bad peer pressure. This is also a major factor that influences the study habits of a college student who are prone to bad peer pressure.

The fourth variable is environment. The environment in where the students study is a big factor. It can affect the student's capacity to learn. If the environment is conducive for learning thus, the students learns more.

Furthermore, researchers found that Ms. Aisha Amed go into detail in peer pressure as she quantified follows, "The question is, why do people give in to peer pressure? Some kids give in to peer pressure because they wanted to be liked, to fit in, or because they worry that other children might make fun of them if they don't go along with the group. Others go along because thay are curious to try something different that others are doing. The idea that "everyone's doing it" can influence some children to leave their better judgement, or their common sense behind. For parents who want to guide their children in dealing with peer pressure, the answer lies in straight forward and effeectual parenting. Always tell your child that he/she is a unique individual and does ot have to emulate his/her peer to feel accepted by them. Peer pressure is something that children had dealt with from early education and sometimes continuing even in adulthood. Although the sternness of peer pressure may not seem to be very grave, don't take any sort of peer pressure lightly. No matter what form it comes in, peer pressure wears away the individuality and retard's personal growth. Besides, making friends is important, and so is socializing, but there are ways to forge new ties and mix up with people without being pressured by peers. Friends never make you lose your identity, making friends is about appreciating the differences and respecting the individual's tatses and still be together. Therefore, remember that if someone asks you to change your well-being be like them in order to fit in with them, you are better off without them. Be comfortable with whom you are, and you will sonn make new friends and will be accepted by everyone. The effects of peer pressure can be prevented by teaching a child to be confident and comfortable in his/her own skin", which wherein she stated her recommendation on the latter part of the researchers study.

According to Erik Erikson, adolescence is the age in which people must set up an identity to escape identity diffusion and confusion. At this age, adolescents give much importance to their friends who have a power over them. This phenomenon is called "peer pressure". Oxford English Dictionary defines peer pressure as the influence from members of the same group. One may think of many kinds of peer pressure that may have positive or negative aspect. Peer group is term commonly used by psychologists to describe people of similar age, often when talking about adolescents.

There is peer pressure in different ages and different places. For instance, workers at the same factory have peer pressure which is positive because each one of them tries to do his or her work. There is peer pressure among small kids; they try to do the same gestures and have the same toys and there is also peer pressure in ethnic groups. Finally, there is peer pressure among adolescents which is the most important kind since it influences the adolescents' personality and intervenes in the development of their morality. Indeed, peers are one of the most affecting factor that influences the adolescent's psychological development. Bronfenbrenner (as cited in Oswald and Suss, 1988), a Russian psychology, asserts, "the first level of the ecology or the context of human development is the microsystem . . . [that is] family, school, peer groups as well as the specific culture within which the family identifies."(349) This means that adolescents are mostly influenced by their families and their surroundings. In previous findings, family was the only responsible for adolescents' behavior, yet recent research finds out that peers have a more powerful influence on adolescents, especially in what concerns academic achievements (Oswald and Suss, 1988). Even if in Bronfenbrenner's model, family comes before outer world which is school and peers, researchers proved that the role of peers is more significant than parents' role. This role is important because at teen's age , youths become interested in knowing who they are. They try hard to look for their identity as this stage is known as the "identity versus identity confusion" in Erik Erikson's Theory of Identity Development. This goes and says that peer pressure is important and even unavoidable in adolescence. Peers are crucial for the adolescent's development because development needs to be in context which mainly means family and peers (Oswald and Suss, 1988). In fact, peer pressure has more negative than positive effects which influence adolescents' personality.

Moreover Ferheen, Moin, Ahmed, Ul - Haq and Khan 2010 explain more the power of peer pressure in their study indicated that "Peer groups have so much influence, especially with adolescents, because, no matter how inappropriate it seems to adults, belonging to a group really does give something significant to the young person. Peer groups provide a place where children feels accepted, where they can feel good about themselves, and where their self-esteem is enhanced. Some psychologists also point out that life become simpler when we conform to expectations. Young people tend to setttle toward other young people with the same problems and in the same situations as themselves and where they feel they will be understood and accepted. There is a very, very strong need to satisfy that thirst for unity and for acceptance. The feeling of belonging is a very powerful force that can outweigh ties to cast, school, family, or community", which this is really vital to the study of the researchers in order for them to know what is the power of the peer pressure with regards to the adolescents or to the college students.