Peer Pressure

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Adolescence is a time of transformation in many areas of individual’s life. In the midst of these rapid physical, emotional, and social changes, youth begin to question adult standards and the need for parental guidance. It is also a time for individuals to make important decisions about their commitment to academics, family, and perhaps religion. Young adults begin to ask questions such as, “Is school important to me?” and “How do I want to spend my time?” The choices that adolescents make regarding their motivation, engagement, and achievement in school (in life) and the satisfaction they obtain from their choices depend, in part, on the context in which the make such choices. (Ryan, 2000) Teachers, parents, and peers all provide adolescents with suggestions and feedback about what they should think and how they should behave in social situations. These models can be a source of motivation or lack thereof. Modeling refers to individual changes in cognition, behavior, or effects that result from the observation of others (Ryan, 2000). Observing others perform a particular behavior or voice a certain opinion can introduce an individual to new behaviors and viewpoints that may be different from his or her own. Academic Performance of the students shows on how he or she excels on the school. Especially to the college students it is really hard for them to maintain a good academic performance throughout every semester. As a college student we can encounter lots of problems most probably when it comes to their peers and parents.
According to American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), Peers play a large role in the social and emotional development of children and adolescents. Their influence begins at an early age and increases through the teenage years. It is natural, healthy and important for children to have and rely on friends as they grow and mature. Peers can be positive and supportive. They can help each other develop new skills, or stimulate interest in books, music or extracurricular activities. However, peers can also have a negative influence. They can encourage each other to skip classes, steal, cheat, use drugs or alcohol, or become involve in other risky behaviors. The majority of teens with substance abuse problems began using drugs or alcohol as a result of peer pressure.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This research aims to know the Effects of Peer and Parent Pressure to the Academic Performance of the HRM 3rd Year Students of UIC
Specially, it seeks to answer the following questions:
1. How does peer pressure be a positive or negative effect to college students
2. In what way parents pressure their child towards their academic performance
3. How can the students manage not to be pressured from both Peers and Parents
HYPOTHESIS
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Theoretical framework is concerned with or involving the theory of a subject or area of study rather than its practical application.
Psychologist Erik Erikson built upon the work of Sigmund Freud but focused more on social rather than sexual aspects of development. He organized psychosocial development into a lifespan model of eight stages from birth to death. Each stage is characterized by an issue in conflict between an individual’s makeup and the societal context. Adolescents are in Erikson’s fifth stage, which is characterized by a conflict between identity and identity confusion. This is when humans most wrestle with the questions of “who am I?” and “where am I headed?”
Autonomy
Children seek to become independent from their parents and immerse themselves in their own social environment during adolescence. In order to increase their autonomy and explore their own individual identities, adolescents also need to question their parents’ rules and behaviors, says University of Michigan professor Jacquelynne S. Eccles. As a result of questioning their parents and spending less time with them, adolescents are more susceptible to peer pressure particularly in the younger years.
Fitting In They may be pulling away from their parents, but adolescents want to fit in and understand their place in society. Peer groups fulfill the adolescent’s need for validity and acceptance and provide space and opportunity for exploration and experimentation. Adolescents actively seek membership in a peer group to help them explore different educational, occupational, political and social roles. Parents might take comfort in knowing that adolescents generally select peers who resemble them and their upbringing, according to Eccles.
Failure
If a child is struggling at this stage and identity confusion is stronger than identity formation, she might explore lifestyles that are unhealthy or dangerous. A child who fails to develop properly during this stage rejects social contracts with others and fights conforming to social values, becoming particularly susceptible to negative peer pressure. Children who are pressured by parents to conform a particular role they don’t identify with may also rebel.
Success
Successful progression through the fifth stage isn’t free from adolescent rebellion. Challenging parents and teachers is necessary for optimal emotional cognitive health, as is exploring a range of answers to “who am I?” However, healthy rebellion includes the acceptance of rules, responsibilities and consequences. According to Erikson, successful completion of his fifth stage leads to the virtue of fidelity and the ability to be loyal to the people and ideologies, and its necessary for a positive transition to adulthood.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Independent Variable Dependent Variable

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research study would have a contribution in determining the effects of peer and parent pressure to the academic performance of 3rd BSHRM students of UIC.

To the Students. The students have a big part to this study. They would give us an evaluation if peer and parent pressure affects their academic performance.
To the Researchers. As hotel and restaurant management students, this study will help us to know the effects of being pressured by your parents and peers that might affect your studies.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION This research study focuses on Effects of Peer and Parent Pressure to the Academic Performance of College Students. There are 50 respondents in this study. The researchers focuses on the students of the University of the Immaculate Conception, Father Selga St., Davao City.

Definition of Terms
Peer Pressure – pressure exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change their attitude, behavior, and/or morals, to conform to.
Parental Pressure – is when parents either discipline or influence their children. Grades, popularity, or social life, athletic abilities, and appearance pressures all take tolls on their children.

Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
Peer Pressure Peer Pressure: Its Influence on Teens and Decision Making., say you’re sitting around with some friends playing video games and someone mentions a particular game that happens to be one of your favorites. “Oh, that game’s easy. So not worth the time,” one of your friends says dismissively. The others agree. Inwardly, you know that it is a game you happen to enjoy quite a lot but, outwardly, you go along with the crowd.
According to Castrogiovanni (2002), a peer group is defined as a small group of similarly aged, fairly close friends, sharing the same activities. In general, peer groups or cliques have two to twelve members, with an average of five or six. Peer groups provide a sense of security and they help adolescents to build a sense of identity. Adolescents ask questions relating to social identity theory such as, “Who am I?” and “What do I want out of life?” Feeling part of a group, be it a stereotypical jocks, goths, or punks allows adolescents to feel like they are on the way to answering some of these questions. Given that adolescents spend twice as much time with peers as with parents or adults, it is important to study the influence or pressures that peers place on each other. The more subtle form of peer pressure is known as peer influence, and it involves changing one’s behavior to meet the perceived expectations of others (Burns & Darling, 2002). In general most teens conform to peer pressure about fairly insignificant things like music, clothing, or hairstyles. When it comes to more important issues like moral values, parents still remain more influential than peer group (Black, 2002).
Biddle, Bank, and Marlin conducted a study to examine parental and peer influence on adolescents. The data collected was part of the field study of expectations and reported behaviors conducted by interviews with American adolescents. Subjects for the study consisted 149 adolescents, then enrolled in public highschools in a Midwestern state. The respondents constituted a quota-sample design that was approximately balanced for age, sex, social class, race, and community of residence.
The researchers found that peer behaviors are more likely to affect the adolescent than parental behaviors, whereas parental norm are more likely to affect the adolescent that peer norms. Parents have had a longer time to influence adolescents and retain a responsibility to represent the standards of the adult world. Peers, in contrast, may be shunned if they attempt to impose standards on their adolescent friends but are likely to be omnipresent as behavioral models with schools (Biddle, Bank, and Malin, 2001)