Peer Influence and Its Effect on Students’ Academic Performance in Tiko Sub-Division
Department: Curriculum
Studies and Teaching
No of Pages: 53
Project Code: CST10
References: Yes
Cost: 5,000XAF
Cameroonian
: $15 for International students
ABSTRACT
This
research study Peer influence and its effect on the academic performance of the
students in secondary schools in Tiko sub-division. The study was limited to
four secondary schools in Tiko sub-division. Six research questions guided the
study.
The
findings of the study revealed that the peer group influences learning and
certain factors like the social economic status and parental factor as they
determine membership in most groups. The study also found out that pupils are
closer to their friends than to their teachers and parents concerning their
academics and that parents monitor their children’s peer group association. The
findings were discussed and recommendations were made.
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
This
chapter deals with the background of the students various problems, generally and specific objectives, research
question, which are generally and specific,
justification of the study, delimitation or scope of the study and finally
definition of terms.
Background of the study
People
with similar interest, age group, background and social status forms a part of
the Peer Group. This type of peer group is both social and primary group of
like-minded and aesthetics group. The student’s behavioral change happens in
the school wherein peers have a vital role in achieving such a change. Role of
peer influence has direct or indirect influence in the academic achievement.
Social
and emotional development and educational objectives are influenced by peer
group. (Allen 2005). Peers play an increasing role of influence from early age
to teenage. Adolescents have healthy relationship with their peers and give
importance to them compared to other age groups and their trust.
According
to Marquis, Christopher, Tilcsik, Andrais (2016) peer influence is the direct
or indirect influence on people of peers, members of social groups with similar
interest experience social groups with similar interest, experience, or social
status. Members of a peer group are more likely to incline a persons' beliefs
and behavior.
According
to them, a group or individuals may be encouraged and want to follow their
peers by changing their attitudes, values or behaviors to conform to those of
the influencing group or individual. For example the individual affected by
peer pressure, this can result either a positive or negative effect or both. These
social groups include both membership in which individuals hold formal
membership in this research schools.
Researchers
have frequently studied the effects of peer influence in children on and on
adolescents and in popular discuss the term peer influence is used most often
with reference to those age groups. For children the themes most commonly
studied are their abilities for independent decision-making.
For
adolescents peer influence relationship to sexual intercourse and substance
abuse have been significantly researched. This peer influence can be
experienced through both face-to-face interaction and through digital
interaction and through social media.
According
to Ryan (2015), the peer group influences are more pronounced and noted in
higher institutions of learning than in secondary and primary schools, partly
because some of the students go away from home and stay in hostels or residents
close to school where parental supervision and contact is very limited.
The
influence of peer group on students with physical and health impairment is
great both socially and academically in the school, because there is the
tendency for members to be comfortable with the group norms and values.
Sometimes, influence of peer groups may lead to aggressive behavior such as
rioting in school.
Peer
group influence also prompt students to form social clique with nicknames.
Students with physical and health impairment are always anxious to initiate
their peers socially whether in a good or bad way, they would want to go to the
church or mosque due to their peers‟ influences. They may also join different
clubs like Girls‟ Guides, Boys‟ Scout, Brigade, Red Cross, to mention but few
(Owuamanam, 2011).
Adeola
(2013) posited that the attitudes may influence students‟ social and academic
achievement 0either positively or negatively. The negative aspect which could
be detrimental to students‟ social and academic work are the cases of group
behavior such as truancy, persistent lateness to school, juvenile delinquency,
stealing, absenteeism from school, disobedience, laziness, disregarding school
rules and regulations and so on.
On
the other hand, the influence could be geared towards positive aspect of
students‟ social and academic achievement. For instance, students could be
influenced socially, psychologically, intellectually to mention but few, and
all these can boost academic performance as well as good social behavior. For
instance forming a reading group, going to the library, anxious to join others
in answering questions in the classroom, and making friends with brilliant
students (Coleman, 2014).
Castrogiovanni
(2012) stated that at adolescence stage, one’s sense of identity is unstable.
Apeer-labelling process may be contributing to the construction of positive
identities for some adolescents with physical and health impairment but
negative identities for others (Ademorokun,2013). Best friends have been found
to be similar in regards to frequency of cutting class and time spent on
homework.
Thomas
and Landau (2012) asserted that students with physical and health impairment
who care about learning are more likely to associate with peers who share this
interest in academics than those who have less interest in learning. The
personal value that an individual attaches to a characteristic also affects the
individual’s response to change.
Adolescence is a time of transformation in many areas of an 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. (Nicole, 2004 in Castrogiovanni, 2002). 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 adolescent make regarding their motivation, engagement, and achievement in school (and in life) and the satisfaction they obtain from their choices depend, in part, on the context in which they make such choices (Ryan, 2000 as cited in Castrogiovanni, 2002).
Teachers,
parents, and peers all provide adolescents/students 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 a lack thereof.
Modelling
refers to individual changes in cognition, behaviour, or effects that result
from the observation of others (Ryan, 2000 in Castrogiovanni, 2002). 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.
Observation
also enlightens an individual on the consequences of such behavior and
opinions. Depending on these consequences, observation of a model can
strengthen or weaken the likelihood the observer will engage in such behaviour
or adopt such beliefs in the future.
Peer
group effect/influence is an important component in determination of student
outcomes. A typical student learns from discussions with his peers and can
possibly be affected by their personality and attitude towards learning. Peer
students can also be motivated by working together. It is well established that
the quality of peers could affect a wide range of student outcomes from school
performance to health conditions or even juvenile criminal behaviour.
Economists
have investigated in the peer effects for a variety of peers include proximity
based peers such as schoolmates. (Evans et al., 1992, Sacerdote, 2001, Hoel et
al., 2005), classmates (Ammermueller and Pischke, 2009), or linkage based peer,
such as friendship (Cooley 2009, Bramoulle et al., 2009).Children’s peer
relationships in the early grades have consequences for children’s short-term
and long-term school adjustment, including academic achievement (Bierman, 2004;
Ladd, 1990).
The
most frequently studied aspects of peer relations are peer acceptance/rejection
and friendships. Low peer acceptance (or high peer rejection) forecasts school
avoidance and disaffected patterns of engagement from kindergarten through the
middle grades (Buhs& Ladd, 2001; Furrer& Skinner, 2003; Ladd, Birch,
&Buhs, 1999; Wentzel, 1998).
Longitudinal
studies with elementary students have clarified processes responsible for the
impact of peer acceptance on achievement, highlighting the mediating roles of
both classroom participation (Buhs, Ladd, & Herald, 2006) and
self-perceived academic competence (Flook, Repetti, & Ullman, 2005).
With
respect to the role of friends on achievement, having a close friend may
promote academic achievement due to the buffering effect of friendships on
children’s feelings of loneliness, which predicts lower academic motivation and
achievement (Kochenderfer& Ladd, 1996). Peer group is an important
influence throughout one’s life but they are more critical during the
developmental years of childhood and adolescence.
Adolescents
always emulate their mates in whatever form of behaviour they exhibit,
particularly that which interest them thus, since socialization only refer to
changes in behaviour, attitudes having their origin in interaction with other
persons and those which occur through integration, a child learn more through
interaction with peers. (Bierman, 2004; Ladd, 1990).
Socialization
being a life-long process cannot be limited to the family members alone. As a
child grows older and more matured, it become more necessary for the external
bodies to be involved in his/her life. The family is not expected to provide
all the education required by the growing child. The school which is an
established academic institution in which the behaviour of an individual is
sharpened to get him/her equipped for occupational socialization.
In
the school system, the child gets into the social group of “like minds” and
interest. As a result of the various attitudes, skills, knowledge is acquired
through role-play. Peer group as an agent of socialization is the most
important socializing is the most important socializing agent for the
developing child.
Peer
group is the pivot of social change and during interaction peers; the child’s
life is transformed from the helpless child into a mature adult. (Bierman,
2004; Ladd, 1990). According to Peter
and Pellegrini, (2001) each peer group has its code of conduct, which does not
always conform to adult standards. The important thing is that each child takes
his/her membership of the peer very serious and attempts to do anything to
ensure he/she is accepted and recognized.
Lack
of acceptance by the peer disturbs the child especially at adolescent age. Some
children have been known to do badly in school not because they lack the
academic ability to do well but because they are disturbed by the fact they are
not accepted by their peer group. What makes learning comparative is the fact
that the child has equal status with the other children.
There
is an atmosphere of freedom in which each child learns the way of the world
from others. The peer group thus becomes more and more important to the child
as he advances in age. Other ways in which the peer group can help the child
include, teaching the culture of the society at large, making possible social
mobility, providing opportunity for the child to play many social roles such as
that of a leader, a follower, teacher or student.
The
peer group also help the child to win his/her independence easily from
domination and set before him a goal which is more easily attainable than the
expectation of adults. This in itself provides motivation for learning and is
mainly responsible for the fact that all children at one stage or the other
regard their membership of peer group as very important.
When
the family is not supportive for instance, if the parents work extra jobs and
are largely unavailable, their children may turn to their peer for emotional
support. This also occur when the conflict between parents and children during
adolescence or at any stage during a child’s development becomes so great that
the child feels pushed away and seeks company elsewhere.
Most
children and adolescents in this position do not discriminate about the kind of
group they join. They will often turn to a group simply because the group
accepts them even if the group is involved in negative tendency. (Peter and
Pellegrini, 2001). The need for affection or closeness is often greater than
the need to do the right thing.
For
some adolescents who feel isolated and abandoned by members of their family
being part of a peer group provides such individual with acceptance and
security not available at home. In the Nigerian society today, the influence of
peer group cannot be over emphasized in a child’s life most especially child
education.
Peer
group has in one way or the other influenced the life of children both
academically, socially, morally, psychologically and otherwise. Socialization
such as family, religion, mass media, and school among others help in modifying
the behaviour of the child.
Statement of the Problem
According
to performances of secondary schools in Tiko Sub-division has been drastically
been decreasing with time including the number of drop outs and absenteeism, at
first, students were more serious with studies than now, reasons being that
they were not so attached to groups made up of friends but today most students
do form their own groups made up of members of the same group.
These
groups created are peers, these peers ad held or are sources of bad habits
leafing to poor performances despite the upgraded teaching strategies, teaching
and aids than before but students’ performance has instead declined and teaching
is even more student based. Some students have both positive and negative influences
but the researches interest in on the
negative aspects of those peer groups and see how it affects students' academic
performance.
Therefore
it is on this background that the(researchers) decided to carry out a study on
the consequences of peer influences on students' academic performance, with
aspects of smoking, drug abuse, drinking, clubbing, absenteeism, and so on.
General Objectives
- To examine how peer influence impacts on the students’ academic performance.
Specific Objectives
- To investigate the effect of peer influence on students’ academic performance in Tiko-subdivision.
- To Examine how smoking affects students’ academic performance of secondary schools in Tiko Sub-division.
- To examine how drinking affects students’ academic performance of secondary schools in Tiko Sub-division.
- To examine how clubbing affects students' academic performance of secondary schools in Tiko Sub-division.
- To Examine how dressing code impacts students' academic performance of secondary schools in Tiko Sub-division.
- To examine how promiscuity affects students’ academic performance of secondary schools in Tiko Sub-division.
- To examine how absenteeism affects students' academic performance of secondary schools in Tiko Sub-division.
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