Colegio de San Jose del Monte

The Influence of Peer Pressure to the School Behavior

of Senior Highschool Students of

Colegio De San Jose Del Monte

A Research Presented to the Faculty of the Senior High School

of

Colegio de San Jose del Monte

Genesis, Poblacion I, City of San Jose del Monte Bulacan

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Subject:

Inquiries, Investigation and Immersion

A Research Project by:

Antonio, John Louie Angelo A.

2019
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This project would not have been possible without the support of many people. It is a

pleasure to express my deepest gratitude to some special individuals who have helped me

accomplish this study.

I would also like to express thanks to the Internet, Google and other references for giving

sufficient information I needed for this study.

Last but not the least, I submit my deepest gratitude to the Almighty God for being my

source of strength, wisdom and knowledge that made this possible.

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 ABSTRACT

A favorable school atmosphere, in which adolescents behave positively, is one of the

greatest concerns for teachers, administrators and parents. As students enter the school, the peer

group then functions as an important socializing agent for them. As peers socialize within their

different school environments, individuals are forced to conform to the practices and opinions of

the group. Usually this conformity is unconstructive and clashes with the parents’ and teachers’

expectations. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of peer pressure on the

behavior of Senior Highschool students of Colegio de San Jose Del Monte at school. A

qualitative methodological approach was used to conduct the study. The involved respondents

are from the senior highschool students of Colegio De San Jose Del Monte. Checklist

questionnaires (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1987) were used to collect the data. Results showed a

significant positive relationship between peer pressure and their behavior in school. Implications

for further research were suggested.

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Tables of Contents
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING.................................................................................5
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................5
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY........................................................................................................6
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.......................................................................................................7
OBJECTIVES:........................................................................................................................................7
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY.........................................................................................................8
DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS:............................................................................................................9
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE..........................................................................11
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................................14
BIBLIOGRAPHY.....................................................................................................................................15

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CHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

INTRODUCTION

Youth is period of joy, belief in oneself, freedom. It is the time to think for one’s future.

However, there is what you called peer pressure. Peer pressure is often seen during the

adolescence stage of a teenagers because they often seek comfort among their peers and intend to

do what their peers does without knowing if it is good or bad for them. Adolescence is a period

of an individual that is transitory when a child reaches the point in changing its childhood to

adulthood. Thus individuals are prone to temptations in the social concepts, for example,

socializing with others tend to do some activities such as napping and drinking during classes or

work day.

Human development is affected by its socialization with other people in the environment.

Adolescent have higher tendency to experience peer pressure in school. Peer pressure is clustered

in four categories such as social belongingness, curiosity, cultural-parenting orientation of

parents and education. Adolescence social environment could affect teenagers in their

adolescence, because mostly in this period teenagers tend to communicate more by their peers.

As children grow and reach adolescence, teenagers become more dependent with their peers than

their family especially in making choices and enhancing their moral values in life. An adolescent

seeks the fruits of friendship whether they are sweet or sour. The peer group consisting of best

buddies plays a great role in one’s life. Looking at what friends do, may lead to the imitation of

the same. If one can pick selectively, it can actually result in a positive change in one’s way of

life but most of the times it results into the addiction towards alcohol, drugs, smoking i.e. peer

pressure. It also creates disparity between parent child relationships. .It could extend to

committing a crime or engaging in unprotected sex. Peer pressure can lead to a loss of

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individuality. Many a times, it so happens, that one is forced to lead a certain kind of lifestyle

due to peer pressure. One may not like partying on every weekend, one may not like night outs

with friends, one may hate drinking or smoking, but peer pressure may make one do all one had

never wished to. There are many youngsters who experience great pressure from their peer group

that forces them to take to drinking. If the youth gives in and participates, putting acceptance

ahead of values, the result is loss of an adolescent. They stop believing in their ability to stand up

for them, and their ability to live consistently with submission and humility.

Eventually this study is aimed to know the influence of peer pressure to the school

behavior of senior highschool students of Colegio de San Jose Del Monte.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Student’s behavior in schools has become a cause of concern in most schools. Many

students show a problem behavior that is very serious. Teachers are challenged in dealing with

children, who display certain behaviors that are not tolerated. Literature offers insight into the

conceptualization of the influence of peer pressure on a student’s behavior within different

school set ups.

There are students who break laws and commit crimes such as stealing, drinking, taking

illicit drugs, and smoking at school. Mattessich and Hosley (2004) suggest the importance of

approaching these problems in collectively, rather than treating each issue separately. One of the

two factors contributing to problems is the socio-economic status of the school.

Major settings that influences the way children and adolescents grow up include families,

neighborhoods, and schools. The qualities of these settings, whether they are supportive and

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nurturing or dangerous and destructive, have a profound influence on adolescents’ adult lives.

The school’s socio-economic status plays a big role in shaping learners’ behavior especially in

most deprived schools, due to shortage of learning and teaching equipment, and unqualified

teachers. These deprived schools face difficulties of being unable to equip learners with effective

skills and education. Those learners that are well behaved are then exposed to negative peer

pressure or to misbehave. This then in turn leads learners to start indulging in misbehavior due to

a general lack of school activities and idleness and as well as lack of guidance from parents or

guardians.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The aim of this research paper is to know the influence of peer pressure to the school behavior of

Senior Highschool Students of Colegio de San Jose Del Monte.

OBJECTIVES:

The researcher conducted a study to find out the influence of peer pressure to the school behavior

of Senior Highschool Students of Colegio de San Jose Del Monte.

The objectives of the researchers are the following:

1. To know the advantages of peer pressure to a student

2. To know the disadvantages of peer pressure to a student

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3. To find out how to prevent the negative effects of peer pressure

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study aims to know the influence of peer pressure to a student’s behavior in school.

It aims to point out the effects it poses to student’s daily lives. These sites evidently have a lot of

positive effects, but they also have their share of negative impact. In order to provide much help,

this study would like to give enlightenment to the said phenomena. We would like to provide,

through this research, information about the impact of these sites to student that would hopefully

lead to a realization. In this part of the chapter, it is explained the importance of this research and

the possible benefits that could be derived from answering the research questions and objectives.

The research is beneficial towards the following groups:

Students

The results will provide the students with some knowledge on the possible impact of peer

pressure towards their school attitude and behavior.

Parents

Through this research, parents can pave the path of their child’s progress. Parents can openly

communicate, involve with their children’s lives and teach their children tools for coping with

negative peer pressure.

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Teachers

The research benefits this group of people as it gives them an idea on how they can help their

students and guide them accordingly.

Future researchers

The research can be of significance to the future researchers as this will serve as their reference

or basis on doing their own research study.

DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS:

Adolescence - Adolescence: is defined as the transitional stage of development between

childhood and adulthood, represents the period of time during which a person experiences a

variety of biological changes and encounters a number of emotional issues (Pereira & Altmann,

1985).

Peer pressure - is the influence of a social group on an individual. It can be positive or negative

(Wickert, 2002).

School- an educational institution offering studies at differentiated levels to groups of pupils of

various ages; instruction may be given by one or more teachers. It may be contained in a single

structure or a group of separate buildings; may be under private or public auspices (Gutek,

1984).

Socio-economic status (SES) - any measure which attempts to classify individuals, families, or

households in terms of indicators such as occupation, income and education (Lareau, 2003).

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Environment -refers to the factors that can affect a person’s behaviour. There are social and

physical environments. Social environment include family members, friends and colleagues.

Physical environment is the size of a room, the ambient temperature or the availability of certain

foods. (Glanz et al, 2002).

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CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Studies show that the influence of peer groups among student can boost their anxiety

especially pertaining to their education (Kadir, Atmowasdoyo & Salija 2018). The relationship

within the group with its peers are co-related with each other, hence the direction of this

particular relationship should be monitored were these relationships should go considering all

possible factors correlated within the groups outcome (Wilson, 2016). Peer pressure faced by

many teenagers of the society, professionals understood the concept of peer influence that could

affect teenagers in a negative way which can be prevented by educating and preparing teenagers

to face the negative aspects caused by peer pressure (Temitope & Og0nsakin, 2015). Similarly

peer influence among teenagers does not directly affect them in a negative way but it varies in

how much and how the students receive the climate of the peers coming from the group (Mosha,

2017). When a student is influenced and motivated by peers he will perform excellent at school

and got good grades in mathematics (Boechnke, 2018). Getting the support needed coming from

the peer group, student tend to excel and exceed its capability and concentrate more pertaining to

his studies and do good in the academic tasks in school (Olalekan, 2016).

Adolescence gaining social support from its peers is an important factor to cope with

different problems and illnesses by letting go of emotions by talking someone. Social support

plays an important role for teenagers to lessen the effects of stressful situations and stressors

through the support of the peers in the group (Esen & Gundogdu 2010). Despite the various

studies conducted for understanding the effects of peer group in student’s academic performance,

no one has yet understood the nature of peer effects among students (Zhang, 2010). Knowing

how the teenagers interact with their peers and how they interact with each other and how

presence of peer group affect student’s academic achievement in school plays an important role

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for various categories and even the whole educational system (Leka, 2015). Peer pressure is

commonly described as peers encouraging other teenagers to do things (Santor, Messervey &

Kusumakar, 2000). Peer pressure is also caused by parent’s lack of supervision towards their

children during adolescence, children tend to enjoy their peers company and spend with their

peers more during the adolescence period (Puligni, 1993). There are different factors that could

affects student’s academic performance in school whether it’s their family is giving proper

guidance and motivation to their children with the healthy and harmonies interaction with their

surroundings (Ezzarrooki, 2016). Students interactions with its peers could help enhance their

capability and increase their academic performance in school because they could seek help from

their peers that could serve as a motivation than working alone (Sotinis, Mirco & Michael,

2013). Student peer group in school plays as an in socializing teenager with the peers to socialize

with each other that help should the child adolescents (Uzezi & Deya, 2017). Interaction of

students between its peer are likely to influence the students and can be crucial for the student to

determine their choice and could affect student performance ( De Giorgi ,n.d.).

Understanding peer influence towards teenagers is important for developing and

understanding how to improve socioeconomic policies (Carman & Zhang, 2011). Peer among

youth plays a vital role during the adolescence of a teenager. This is the time when teenagers

develop deep friendship among their peers and become permanent during their adolescence

(Guzman, 2017). Peer pressure towards persons behavior is said to be a social phenomenon

where the members of a particular society or may not be influence negatively but majority are

affected by the undesirable behavior of those people who resist what others do (Gulati, 2017).

Looking to the different group of factors that influence adolescence in their completion of their

academic excellence it is further hindered by developmental challenges (Chen, 2008). An

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individual seek emotional support towards communicating publicly and showing his private

objectives or goals. Indeed through showing your emotions to others individual can get

emotional benefits from it because it could help them to overcome temptation and could give

them emotional benefits. (Borein & Boemont, 2013). Also, peer groups answer questions from

teenager different concern from adolescence stage including physical appearance or changing

bodies (Ademiyi & Kolawole, 2015).

Peer pressure could easily affect the self-esteem of students that an important factor

adolescence. Individual adapt attitudes towards a certain aspect that they encountered or they are

aware of (Uslu, 2013). In many events student fantasizing and visualizing what they dreamed to

became through with their colleagues atmosphere. Eventually, they pursue their choices through

with the influence of peer pressure (Owoyele & Toyobo, 2008). The pressure among peer group

among its member may engage to do undesired things or negative behavior with the presence of

a particular peer group leader who engage its member to do deviant acts or promote undesirable

things to the group (Dumas, Ellis, & Wolfe, 2012).

Peer group is important in the social context that plays a vital role in society and to the

behavior of a student in school (Chen, 2008). Adaptive behavior of the development increases

become broader and complex and as the age increases (Yonus, Mushtaq & Qaiser n.d.). School

that the students attend to serves an institution among students that determine their learning

capacity based on the school environment that gives the learning experience toward students

(Korir, 2014). Thus choosing major courses within an institution are major choices a student

intends to make but it is affected by their interactions among other students (Porter & Umbach,

2006). Hence, the behavior of an individual have seen similarities among the group due to the

effect of their peers, it is still difficult to relate the consequences that the individual within the

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group are similar with each other or social to be pursuing their intentions together to have similar

outcomes (Kremer & Levy, 2008). Interactions between students with their agemates appeal to

enhance their learning capacity under the guidance of an adult educator (Kinderman, 2016).

Therefore, Peer Pressure cannot directly be shown to have negative or positive impact towards

students’ academic performance but one can realize the appropriate coping mechanism for a

problem as a technique to avoid and fight peer pressure optimistically.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In this study, the researcher used qualitative research method . The researcher carried out

a survey. This instrument which is mostly used in qualitative research, involves a questionnaire

that provides a script for presenting a standard set of questions and response options. The survey

will be used to gather data on the influence of peer pressure to the school behavior of senior

highschool students of Colegio de San Jose Del Monte. The survey was carried out on a

convenience sample of the total students in Grade 11 and Grade 12 of Colegio de San Jose Del

Monte, both male and female. In gathering of data, the researcher will ask permission to the

teacher of a particular section. The survey is done by going to each classroom and distributing

the questionnaires. The researcher will allot time for the respondents to answer the given

questionnaire. After the respondents have filled put the necessary information, the researchers

will collect all the papers and keep it for the tallying of data.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

(1) Boehnke, K.(2008). Peer pressure: a cause of scholastic underachievement? a cross-cultural

study of mathematical achievement among german, canadian, and israeli middle school students.

Soc Psychol Educ 11, 149-160. DOI: 10.1007/s11218-007-9041-z

(2) Chen, J.(2008). Grade-level differences: relations of parental, teacher, and peer support to

academic engagement and achievement among hong Kong students. School Psychology

International.

(3) Dumas, T., Ellis, W. and Wolfe, D. (2012). Identity development as a buffer of adolescent

risk behavior in the context of peer group pressure and control. Journal of Adolescence (35) 917-

927 Doi: 10.1016/j.adolescene.2011.12.012

(4) Fuligni, A. and Eccles, J. (2008). Perceived parent-child relationships and early adolescents’

orientation toward peers. Development in Psychology,29(4), 622-632.

(5) Mosha, M.(2017). The influence of peer group on academic performance of adolescent

students in secondary schools in Tanzania. Research Journal of Educational Studies and Review3

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