4th WATCH MARANATHA CHRISTIAN ACADEMY

( A member of NCLC/MCA School System)

PEER PRESSURE IN THE LIFE OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

A Research Proposal

Presented to

The Faculty of the Senior High School

Maranatha Christian Academy

Makati City

by:

Cristen Kyle Dainne A. Astete (ABM)

John Ryan O. Redondo (ABM)

Churchille N. Lucindo (ABM)

Jericko D. Gonzales (GAS)

Princess N. Violenta (GAS)

Julie Marie Salvador (GAS)

First Semester, 2019-2020

Topic: Peer Pressure on Junior High School Students of Maranatha Christian

Academy

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study

Peer Pressure is defined as negative influence. They can encourage each

other to skip classes, steal, cheat, use drugs or alcohol, share inappropriate material
online, 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. This pressure can happen in person or on social media. ( AACAP,2018)

By Definition, Peer pressure occurs when a peer group exerts direct or

indirect pressure to do certain actions. The term “peer” often refers to people one
knows in real life and who have a similar social status to oneself. However, peer
pressure can also be exerted by the larger culture. For example, television shows
can convey to the public an acceptable way to behave, even though the people on
TV do not know every individual they are influencing.

According to peer pressure statistics on the Adolescent Substance Abuse

Knowledge Base website, in a 2006 study it was estimated that: Every day 2,500
teens chose to abuse some type of pain reliever for the first time and about 1/3 of
those respondents reported that they felt pressured into at least trying them and 2,
500 teens daily for a year equals more than 900,000 teens every year that are trying
a prescription drug for the first time.

Statement of the Problem

1.What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 Name;

1.2 Gender;

1.3 Age;

1.2 Grade Level and Section;

2. What are the causes of having experienced Peer Pressure?

2.1 Self;

2.2 Family;

2.3 Friends;

2.4 Society;

3.What should be done to teach the students to become aware on identifying and
approaching someone who is suffering from Peer Pressure.

Definition of Terms

Prescription Drug- is a pharmaceutical drug that legally requires a medical

prescription to be dispensed.

Convey- to communicate

Significance of the Study

The findings will be used show the effects of peer pressure on secondary students. A
greater number of afflicted individuals proves that these illnesses are prevalent.
Lower figures indicate a healthy demographics of surveyed individuals. Educational
Institutions are vital components in providing a better environment awareness about
the Peer Pressure and quality education for all students. Health Professionals will be
guided to cope with the inflating numbers of students afflicted with Peer Pressure. To
the future researcher (or researchers if it’s group study),this study will guide them to
find other information which is left undiscovered by predecessor.

Scope and Limitation

The study will be conducted Maranatha Christian Academy at Rizal , Makati ,

Philippines wherein the area limit will be on the aforementioned location. .A
total of ten (10) students on different grade levels will be surveyed. The
amount of time producing this study will be approximately one (1) week.
Topic: Peer Pressure on Junior High School Students of Maranatha Christian
Academy

CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents the summary of literature and studies that have
relevance t the present study. They are viewed by the researcher to gain deeper
insights into the field of study. It is from these materials that the concept of this work
was based and formed. It also includes the theoretical and conceptual framework on
which this study was anchored.

Meaning of Peer Group

According to Castrogiavanni (2002) a peer pressure group is define as a small

group similarly aged; fairly close friends, sharing the same activity. In general, peer
groups or cliques have two to twelve members, with an average of five and six. Peer
groups provide a sense of security and they help adolescents to build a sense of
identity. The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, (2001) defined peer group as a
group of people of same age or social status. The peer group is the first social group
outside the home in which the child attempts to gain acceptance and recognition.
Peer group is an important influence throughout one's life but they are more critical
during the developmental years of childhood and adolescent.

According to Santrock (2010), Peers are individuals who are about the same
age or maturity level. Peer pressure is defined as when people your own age
encourage or urge you to do something or to keep from doing something else, no
matter if personally want to do it or not (Ryan, 2000). The more subtle form of peer
pressure is known as peer influence, and it involve 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 the peer.
Positive Peer Group Influence

Contrary to popular belief, not all peer influence is negative. Spending more
time with peers does not always translate into trouble. Peer influence can, in fact,
keep youth participating in religious activities, going to meetings, and playing on
sport teams even when they are not leaders (Lingren, 1995). The peer group is a
source of affection, sympathy, understanding, and a place for experimentation. This
factor is consistent with Bowmeister and Leary’s “belongingness hypothesis” in that
there is a genetically based need to belong. The basic premise is that people of all
ages seek inclusion and avoid exclusion. Influence in these primary peer groups can
vary from joining the track team or drama club to motivation, engagement, and
achievement in algebra class. (Nicole, 2004).
As already suggested, students define themselves by the group with which
they affiliate. Values that are important to most adolescents include: school learning
and achievement; social activities; and whether or not to engage in delinquent
activities. (Landau, 2002). Fischhoff, Cromwell, and Kipke (1999) cited a systems
theory perspective, arguing that groups that provide a lot of positive feedback
encourage action to maintain good feelings. These good feelings are often reported
in peer groups, and actions could lead to engaging in risky behaviors to keep the
“fun” going.

According to Ryan (2000), students who were identified as “jock-populars”

perceived more pressure in the area of school involvement and less pressure toward
misconduct than students identified as “druggie-toughs.”

Negative Peer Group Influence and its causes

While it is clear that peer groups can be positive for identity formation,
negative peer groups do exist and should be concern to education-related
professionals. One aspect that may contribute to the continuation of negative peer
groups is passive acceptance of peer-group structure. Teachers expect that students
will behave in a certain way that is consistent with their peer group affiliation and
consequently make no attempt to intervene with the structure. In other words,
teachers passively accept the “brain-nerd” differentiation. Another problem that
arises in the school is favoritism toward at athletes often receive more esteem in
school and are often seen by other students as receiving more esteem in school and
are often seen by other students as receiving special treatment. Special treatment
could come in the form of more teacher- student interaction or more academic help
from advisors. This extra attention given towards athletes can be very discouraging
for non-athletes and can spark jealousy. If educators focus too much on the athletes
and/or popular students, they may not even fully notice a struggling student slip
through the cracks. (Nicole, 2004).

An additional drawback in the eyes of alderman (2000) is ability tracking.

Ability tracking to him involves separating students based on their achievements in
school in the past. Ability grouping forces isolation among students at different
achievement levels, with each group forming its own peer culture. Low achievers are
isolated from models of achievement motivation and more effective strategies to
succeed. In essence, ability tracking forces students to form groups that may not
result in the best outcome. High achieving students can benefit from interacting with
low achieving students and “vice versa”,

According to Nicole, (2004) effort may be diluted when adults use

stereotypical images to either excuse or blame students on social identity categories
and crowds to which they belong. For example, a teacher may excuse poor student
test performance on the basis of family lifestyle, or instead blame the family
background for the performance. Blaming poor performance on situational factors
gets the student nowhere. Regardless of background, students should be given
equal opportunities to succeed and be treated just like everyone else. Standards
should be upheld and consequences for not performing well on a test are not always
a bad thing. Otherwise, the student may also begin to blame the situational factors
and give up trying.

What Peer Groups Provide for Adolescent Students

 Educators and parents should be aware that peer groups provide variety of
positive experiences for adolescent. Castrogiovanni (2002) cited the following: the
opportunity to learn how to interact with others; support in defining identify, interest,
Abilities, and personality; Automong without control of adults and parents;
Opportunities for witnessing the strategies other use to cope with similar problems,
and for observing how effective the are; involved emotional support and; Building a
maintaining friendship
According to black (2002),peer group provide a forum where teens construct and
reconstruct their identities. Castrigovanni (2002) stated that at no other stage of
development is one's sense of identity so unstable. A peer-labeling process may be
contributing to the construction of positive identities for some adolescents but
negative identities of others (Downs & Rose, 1991) unfortunately, members of
groups may accept negative labels, incorporate them into their identity, and through
the process of secondary deviance, increase levels of deviant behavior. Teenagers
learn about what is acceptable in their social group by "reading" their friends'
reaction to how they act, what they wear, and what they say. The peer group gives
this potent feedback by their words and actions, which either encourage or
discourages certain behavior and attitudes. Anxiety can arise when teens try to
predict how peers will react, and this anxiety plays a large role in peer influence.

Burns and Darling (2002) started that self-conscious worrying about how
others will react to future actions is the most common way adolescent are influenced
by their peers. When a teen take an unpopular strand and against the expectations
or norms of the peers group, he or she is at risk for being ridicule. Ridicule is not an
easy thing to accept at any age, let anyone when you are twelve or thirteen years
old.

Ways of Combating Negative Peer Pressure

Diminishing negative pressures involves walking a fine line between an

authoritative role and stepping back to allow individual freedom. Teachers can
increase their personal awareness of adolescent social system by investing more
energy in getting to know their students and the groups to which they belong. In the
classroom, teachers should avoid making achievement a game of winners and
losers. One step to accomplish this is to us criterion-based grading instead of
grading on a curve. Most importantly, the school system and community should
enhance the status of academic achievement. (Nicole, 2004).

School should recognize academic excellence in areas outside of the core

curriculum by having trade fairs. It is important to avoid sending mixed messages
about relative worth of academic versus non-academic achievement. This involves
being aware of peer-group social structure that operates in a particular school, the
norms that operate within each group, the relationship of group to another, as well as
the loyalty student's display towards their own group (Alderman, 2000). Harnessing
the power of peers can be important to create school climate supportive academic
excellence (Burns & Darling, 2002).

Bandura’s social learning Theory

Bandura’s social learning theory speaks precisely to the human interactions

involved in learning. Observational or “vicarious” learning based upon learning by
watching then “modelling” or acting similarly to others. If the student views and works
with people who appreciate learning by engaging in leaning activities, then the
student too will engage in learning and might work harder at learning. Peers with
positive attitudes and behaviors toward education will allow and teach each other set
goals that include opportunities to learn and achieve. If peer models do not convey
positive attitudes towards learning, then the students observing these models will not
prioritize learning in their own lives. They will learn to prioritize other goals. (Bandura,
1960).

Bandura (1996) Social cognitive theory also emphasizes the importance of

cognitive representations in the form of expectations about social norms that arise
from observational and experiential learning. Reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen
1975) emphasizes the importance of the perceived social (subjective) norms on
intentions.
Social Bonding

Hirschi (1969) in his explanation of Oetting and Donnemeyer (1998) social

bonding theories suggest that adolescent peer group effects will be stronger in the
absence of strong social bonds with family and school. Social identity theory (Terry,
Hogg, and White, 2000) suggest that adolescents try on various identities and adopt
the norms that are central to the social identity of the peer group to remain in good
standing. Similary, Social exchange Theory ( Kelley and Thibaut 1985 ) argues that
friendship and group membership requires fair exchanges (reciprocity), leading to
conformity of behavior between friends and group members, of course , the nature
of the relationships and group members greatly influences the nature of this
reciprocity
(Plickert, Cote and Wellman 2007), Social network theory suggest that social norms
are Prominently in the literature on persuasion and social marketing (Hastings and
Saren 2003), indeed social influence is the basis for two stage-communication
strategies in which persuasive communication are directed not at the ultimate target,
but at opinion leaders whose attitude and behavior influence others in their social
groups (Rogers 2003).
Conceptual Framework (CF)

Peer Pressure and its

Effect on students

Factors causing Peer

Pressure

Social
Individual
Factors
Factors

Hypothetical solution on solving peer

pressure. Applicable solutions on real life
about peer pressure.
Topic: Peer Pressure on Junior High School Students of Maranatha Christian
Academy
Chapter 3

Methodology

Introduction

This chapter deals with the procedure for data collection, the research design
adopted in the study, research instrument and sampling techniques as well as
method of data collection and analysis.

Research Design

The researcher investigated the positive impact of peer pressure in high school
students. This study was carried out to examine the relationship of an individual to
the people surrounding them and how it affects them. This study is descriptive
statistics research design because of the usage Central Tendency Mean & Standard
Deviation (S. D.) to describe the characteristics of the sample in hand and graphical
representations of surveys to further understand the sense of the study.

Research Locale

The study will be conducted in Makati City. The respondents will be interviewed in
their school or any campuses that the respondents will choose to the researchers
also gathered respondents residing in national region. This respondents will be
interviewed by vlogging. The researchers choose the place of implementation
because it will give their needed information for people have peer pressure. The
study will be conducted next year 2020-2021.

Participants of the Study

There are Four Sets of Participants for this research. In the first set were the Grade
7,The second set were the Grade 8, The third set were the Grade 9, and the fourth
set is Grade 10, were excluded from the study because they may not provide reliable
answers to the question regarding peer pressure because of their inadequate
knowledge regarding these matters. It is important that the groups to be selected be
an eligible representative of the population that fits the criteria presented and the
sampling method used for the respondents.

Sample and Sampling Technique

Simple random sampling technique was used to select ten high school students in
Maranatha Christian Academy of Makati. In particular, ten students was used to
answer the questionnaire that were given to them. Purposive sampling was used to
recruit participants under investigation.

Validity of Instrument Used

In order to ensure validity, the instrument was given to the expert in which useful and
constructive suggestions, observations and corrections were made before they were
administered from the students. From the initial a total of 5 questions were designed.

Instruments for Data Collection

The instrument being used in this research work is the questionnaire, which consists
of series of questions design and expected to be answered by the respondent on the
column provided appropriately.

Method of Data Analysis

Liker-type questionnaires were used to collect data on the positive and negative
effect of peer pressures in junior high students. The questionnaire was used since
the study was mainly concerned with variables that could not be directly observed or
manipulated. A questionnaire was also preferred because it takes care of
confidentiality. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

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