A Correlation Study between Peer Pressure and Adolescents’ Social Behavior: A Quantitative Study

A Correlation Study between Peer Pressure and Adolescents’ Social Behavior: A Quantitative Study

¹Jane Keisha A. Genovia, ¹Jhanalyn A. Llanos, ¹Alcomendras, Jayvee O., ¹Romil M. Abarquez Jr., ¹Shem Frets S. Asidero, ¹Alcris F. Binabaye, ¹Rhyds P. Dejeto, ¹Joshua S. Megabon, ¹Rovic V. Velasquez,  ¹Charis C. Vistal, ²Krystal, Joy M. Clamares, PhD, ²Anna Marie O. Pelandas, MAEd

¹Department of Education, Senior High School Students, Philippines

²Department of Education, Senior High School Teachers, Division of Davao de Oro, Philippines

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.804225

Received: 27 April 2024; Accepted: 13 May 2024; Published: 16 May 2024

ABSTRACT

This study dealt with the influence of peer pressure on adolescents’ social behavior among Grade 11 students at Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School. The primary goal of the study was to determine the level of peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior in terms of their respective indicators, the significant relationship between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior, and what domains of peer pressure substantially influence adolescents’ social behavior. Also, this study utilized a quantitative-correlational design with 202 respondents among Grade 11 students. The average weighted mean, Pearson R, and multiple regression analysis were the statistical tools used in this study. Along with this, the results showed a low level of peer pressure among Grade 11 students in terms of social belongingness, curiosity, cultural parenting orientation, and educational. Likewise, the results showed a high level of adolescent social behavior among Grade 11 students regarding affiliative social behavior, aggressive behavior, and anxious behavior. In addition, there is a negligible correlation and a significant relationship between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior. Hence, this leads to the rejection of the null hypothesis. Also, all domains of peer pressure showed low ratings as perceived by students, and all domains of adolescent social behavior showed a high ratings as perceived by students. Additionally, multiple regression analysis showed the result that there was no significant relationship between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior. Hence, this led to not rejecting the null hypotheses. Thus, to resist peer pressure, students may attend programs that focus on how to navigate and resist peer pressure. Programs that focus on equipping students with essential skills such as critical thinking, decision-making, communication, and problem-solving, which can help them navigate peer pressure more effectively.

Keywords: CSS, Peer Pressure, Adolescent Social Behavior, Philippines

INTRODUCTION

Teenage problem behavior is a negative social issue that not only compromises social harmony and stability but also negatively impacts people’s physical, mental, and developmental health (Jhiang and Gao,2022).). Research in the United States of America (USA) shows that adolescents’ problem behavior is persistent, which can significantly affect adult drinking, violence, and even committing crimes (Evans et al., 2020). Also found out at California a study conducted by Reaves (2018), which shows that it is not only affecting adolescents’ behavioral health, but also is not conducive to the harmonious and stable development of society, it has been found that adolescents’ problem behavior is mainly influenced by individuals, families, schools, and society, and the disharmonious parent–child relationship, school violence, and social order are all important factors that lead to it.

In the Philippines, particularly in Casisang National high school (Bukidnon), A study conducted by Pasco (2019). Exposed that Peer pressure could lead to exposure to healthy lifestyles and become a positive role model in a positive way. Peer pressure does not have a direct negative effect on students, but regardless of the effects of peer pressure, it is still depending on the deal their peers (Fragata and Limpot,2023). It is fortunate if their friends/peers influence them in a positive way such as getting good grades because the group thinks that it is important (Reyes,2018). On another note, according to (Zakaria and Kamarundin, 2022). Adolescence is also the period in which individuals like to spend most of their time with their peer group, as peer groups offer a better environment in terms of equality, excitement, and freedom.

In Region XI, particularly in Davao City, Sumalinog (2021) reported that aggressive behavior and bullying incidence is very evident and alarming because of its high frequency, as it this behavior is under social behavior of adolescents. Furthermore, in our local municipality, Mawab, the researchers had observed that some students of Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School are misbehaving and most of the reported case of students were having a conflict with their peers. And with this, the researchers have interested in determining if Peer Pressure could significantly influenced the social behavior of adolescents.

Research Objectives

1. To assess the level of peer pressure among grade 11 students in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School in terms of:

1.1 Social belongingness;

1.2 Curiosity;

1.3 Cultural-Parenting Orientation; and

1.4 Educational.

2. To find out the level of social behavior among adolescents among grade 11 students in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School in terms of:

2.1 Affiliative Social Behaviors:

2.2 aggressive behaviors; and

2.3 anxious behavior.

3. To determine the significant relationship between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior
4. To determine which of the domains in peer pressure significantly influences the social behavior of adolescents.

METHODOLOGY

This study employed a quantitative non-experimental research design utilizing correlational technique. This method was used when the objective is to describe the status of the situation as it exists at the same time of the study to explore the causes of a particular phenomenon. In correlation research, it involves collecting data in order to determine whether the degree of a relationship exists between two of more quantifiable variables (Gay et al., 2006).

 This survey dealt with quantitative data about the said phenomenon. The quantitative aspect was an appropriate schedule for gathering the data designed for the target respondents to answer the questions. The process of gathering the data was based through the used of questionnaire. The focus of the study was determine the correlation between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior among grade 11 students in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School.

Population and Sample

Simple random sampling was used in the selection of respondents. The subjects of the study used the 423 students of Grade 11 of Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School. Moreover, the study employed stratified random sampling which enabled the researchers to obtain a sample population that best represents the entire population being studied, making sure that each subgroup of interest is represented. The students were randomly selected among the Grade 11 of Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School.

According to Kline (2005), a sample size of 100-200 respondents is considered medium. In the case of students in Grade 11, out of a total population of 423 individuals, a random sample of 202 respondents were selected. The sample size was computed using the Raosoft sample size calculator (Raosoft, 2004).

Statistical Tool

The following statistical tools were utilized for the data analysis and interpretation.

Mean. This statistical tool was used to determine the level of between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior among grade 11 Students of Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School.

Pearson (r). This statistical tool was used to determine the significance on the relationship between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior among grade 11 Students of Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School.

Multiple regression analysis. This statistical tool was used to determine the correlation between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior among grade 11 Students of Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School.

RESULTS

Level of Peer Pressure

Shown in Table 2 are the mean scores for the indicators of Peer Pressure among Grade 11 Students in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School with an overall mean of 2.38 and described as low with a standard deviation of 0.92. The low level could be attributed to the low rating given by the respondents in all indicators. This entails that the respondents’ responses to the level of Peer Pressure are seldomly manifest in terms of social belongingness, curiosity, cultural parenting orientation and educational.

The cited overall mean score was the result obtained from the following computed mean scores from highest to lowest: 2.40 for curiosity with standard deviation of 0.62; 2.39 or low for cultural parenting orientation with standard deviation of 1.78; 2.38 or low for educational with standard deviation of 0.63; and 2.34 or low for social belongingness with standard deviation of 0.63.

Table 2. Level of Peer Pressure

 Level of Adolescents Social Behavior

The data shown in Table 3 are the mean scores for the indicators of Adolescents Social Behavior among Grade 11 students in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School with an overall mean of 3.90 and described as high with a standard deviation of 0.68. The high level could be attributed to the high rating given by the respondents in all indicators. This entails that the respondent’s responses to the level of adolescent’s social behavior are positive in terms of affiliative social behavior, aggressive behavior and anxious behavior.

The cited overall mean score was the result obtained from the following computed mean scores from highest to lowest: 3.97 or high for affiliative social behavior with standard deviation of 0.69; 3.97 or high for aggressive behavior with standard deviation of 0.69; and 3.75 or high for anxious behavior with standard deviation of 0.66.

Table 3. Level of Adolescent’s Social Behavior

 Significant Relationship between Peer Pressure and Adolescents’ Social Behavior

One of the crucial purposes of this study is to determine whether or not peer pressure has a significant relationship with adolescents’ social behavior among Grade 11 students in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School. Pearson r was used to determine the correlation between the two variables.

The results revealed that peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior have a significant relationship. This result is due to a p-value of 0.015, which is less than the 0.05 p-value. Hence, this leads to the decision that the null hypothesis, which stated that there is no significant relationship between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior among the Grade 11 students of Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School is rejected. Moreover, Pearson’s R value which is -0.170 further means that there is a negligible correlation between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior.

Multiple Regression Analysis on the Influence of Peer Pressure and Adolescents Social Behavior

The data shown in Table 5 are the regression coefficients to test the significant influence of peer pressure and adolescents among Grade 11 students of Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School. Using the Multiple Regression Analysis, the data revealed that the influence of peer pressure and adolescent’s social behavior has f-value of 54.249 and corresponding significance p-value of 0.053 which was not significant.

Consistently, this means that peer pressure was not significantly influences the adolescent’s social behavior of grade 11 students since the probability is greater than 0.05. The R squared of 0.046 implies that 4.6% of the social behavior of grade 11 students in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School is influenced by peer pressure, while 95.4% remaining were not covered by the study and influenced by other factors.

DISCUSSIONS

Level of Peer Pressure

The respondents’ level of peer pressure in Lorenzo S. Sarmient9 Sr. National High School is low. This means that peer pressure among grade 11 student in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. was seldom manifested. This further means that peer pressure among Grade 11 students in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School is seldom manifested a peer pressure, which the students seldomly experience peer pressure through social belongingness, which refers to  the subjective feeling of inclusion or acceptance into a group of people; curiosity is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and animals; cultural parenting orientation it is how parent involve their children with their ethnic and racial group memberships, identity, values, and behavioral practices; and educational the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.

Moreover, this result affirmed to the proposition of Saxena (2023) which stated that peer pressure involves people within the same group that sometimes influence others in the group to engage in a behavior or activity that they may not otherwise engage in. Furthermore, peer pressure has negative connotations that imply compulsion or persuasion, whereas socialization is a positive term that refers to the transmission of skills and competencies that Influence subsumes both constructs but is synonymous with neither (Brett L. and René V, 2021). This affirmed to the statement of Yang et al. (2022) which stated that peer pressure sometimes considered one of the reasons adolescents participate in various risk behaviors.

Level of Adolescents Social Behavior

The respondents’ level of adolescent social behavior among the Department of Grade 11 students is high. It means that the students are often manifested in their behavior. This also elicits the fact that students consider themselves to have good mental health when they grow up. This result affirmed to the work of Graf (2023) which state that adolescence is a critical time of social learning in which both the quantity and quality of social interactions shape adult behavior and social function. During adolescence, social instability, such as disrupting or limiting social interactions, can lead to negative life-long effects on mental health and well-being in humans. This study is consistent with the conjecture of Compas (2020). The promotion of positive mental health and the prevention of psychopathology are essential goals of a comprehensive model of mental health services for any age group. Efforts toward mental health promotion and the prevention of psychopathology are complementary to interventions to treat or remediate emotional and behavioral problems.

Equally, this signifies that the students are promoting affiliative social behavior. According to the study of Philipp et al. (2021), reciprocating smiles is important for maintaining social bonds as it both signals affiliative intent and elicits affiliative responses. Feelings of social exclusion may increase mimicry as a means to regulate affiliative bonds with others. The task accomplished by laughter is the easing of social tension and the signaling of affiliation and nonthreat (Niedenthal, 2018). Our results suggest that, in positive contexts, such as play or grooming, specific combinations had an impact on the likelihood of the occurrence of particular responses; specifically, adding a bared teeth face to a gesture either increased the likelihood of affiliative behavior (for stretched arm gesture) or eliminated the bias toward an affiliative response for bent arm gesture (Oña, 2019).

Significant Relationship Between Peer Pressure and Adolescents Social Behavior

The present study reveals that there is a significant relationship between peer pressure and adolescents social behavior among Grade 11 students in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School. This implies that peer pressure influence on adolescents social behavior, as can be seen in the data. This affirms to the anchored theory of Erik Erickson’s (1968) Theory of Identity Development, which posits that peer pressure has more negative than positive effects which influence adolescents’ personality and behavior. This corroborates to the proposition of Oswald and Suss (1988) peers are crucial for adolescents ‘development because development needs to be in context which mainly means family and peers.

Further, the relationship between overall peer pressure and adolescent social behavior was significant among grade 11 students of Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School. This implies that peer pressure is dependent on adolescents social behavior among grade 11 students of Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School. These findings affirmed the notion of Lamsaouri (2005) state that peers often push their friends or a person to change their appearance and as a negative aspect it leads youth to lose their identity and dissolve within the group, they become dependent on their peers’ choice and stuck to their judgements. This also corroborates to Haynie (2002) which state that the negative aspect concerns the negative effects of peer pressure is manipulating adolescents’ attitudes and behavior, Sense of belonging is the most salient aspect that pushes adolescents to conform to a group and share thoughts and beliefs that sometimes harm the youths’ identity. As a result, the adolescents will be manipulated and will never be the real person he or she is, Muuss (1996).

Multiple Regression Analysis on the Influence of the Peer Pressure and Adolescents Social Behavior

The regression coefficient is to test the significant influence of peer pressure and adolescent social behavior among Grade 11 students. Using the Multiple Regression in JASP Software, the data revealed that peer pressure and adolescents social behavior has no significant influence. The overall results of peer pressure predict social behavior among Grade 11 students in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School. Therefore, the significance level of the hypothesis of peer pressure and adolescent social behavior among Grade 11 students is not rejected.

Correspondingly, this result corroborates to the analysis of Tome (2019), who pointed out that peer pressure has no significant influence on adolescents social behavior. Moreover, the perspective of Adeniyi (2022) stated that peer pressure has no significant influence on adolescents social behavior that can be either a positive or negative influence through peers. To boot, the attestation of  Telzer (2022) study among a small sample of adolescents found that a higher level of peer pressure is not associated with less risk-taking behavior in adolescents.

CONCLUSION

The findings of the study are used to draw conclusions. The level of peer pressure among Grade 11 students in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School is low for social belongingness, curiosity, cultural parenting orientation, and educational, therefore, the overall mean is low for peer pressure. The level of adolescent social behavior among Grade 11 students at Lorenzo 5. Sarmiento National High School is high for affiliative behavior, aggressive behavior, and anxious behavior, thus, the overall mean is high for the level of adolescent social  behavior. Moreover, the findings showed that there is a significant relationship between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior in Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School. Additionally, the study concludes that there is a negligible correlation between peer pressure and adolescents’ social behavior.

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