PROJECT WORK

NAME OF STUDENT: OTU DAVID

INDEX NUMBER: 10930141

COURSE TITTLE: ENVIRONMENTAL

AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
CONTEMPORARY GHANA

COURSE CODE: TEJS 353

NAME OF TUTOR: MADAM LORETTA A.

KUMI

Question
Adolescent peer influence on academic performance.
 METHODOLOGY
A research methodology is drafted, after series of preliminary research conducted by me to
pinpoint the impact of adolescent peer influence on academics.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The study was on the influence peer group on the academic performance, Peer group plays an
important part throughout one’s life. It is more crucial during the developmental years of
learners. The child’s peer group consists of people or individuals that are within an age
bracket. The school serves as the primary setting for the membership of a peer group. They
may be in the same class. The educational foundation of a child starts right from the home in
an informal way before the child is sent to school for formal education. At school, the child is
exposed to classmates, teachers and peers (Ryan, 2012).
They all influence the child in one way or the other. The peer group is therefore the first
social group outside the home which the child interacts with. Each peer group has its code of
conduct which may not always conform to advanced standard. Peer group is the pilot of
social change and during interaction the child’s life is transformed from helplessness into
mature adult. According to Castro Giovanni (2002) a peer group is a small group of about the
same age, fairly close friends, sharing the same activities. In general, peer groups or cliques
are essential to social and general development. Communication with fellow peer group
members increases significantly during adolescence, and peer relationship becomes more
intensive than in other stages (Papalia, Feldman & Kruk, 2004). High quality friendship may
enhance students’ development regardless of the characteristics of those friends. As children
begin to bond with various people and create friendships, it helps them as adolescents and set
up a framework for adolescent life and peer group interaction.
Peer group is an agency of acculturation and learning. Every child develops a sense of self
from their perception of important people in their surroundings, relations, teachers and peers.
As a child leaves the home setting, self-perception and socialization takes place. When
children move out from their family to schools and the community at large, they begin to
form attachment, and friendship results as they play together (Landau, 2002). This
relationship influences behaviour. Peer group influence on students’ academic performance
greatly depends on the skills and potentials of the students. As a child grows up, his/her own
peer group or companion is likely to be of greater importance to the child than even the
parents and teachers.

INTRODUCTION

The basis of a child's education begins at home. This begins with informal education, which
starts with the parents, especially the mother. The child will then be sent to school for final
education where he will be exposed to so many people like the teachers, classmates, and
school environment. all these people associated with the teaching of the child certainly
influence the academic performance of the child greatly because he spends most of his time
with them. As a result, the peer group is the first social group outside the home where the
youngster tries to earn approval and recognition.
Smart & Smart (2000) defined peer group as friends of about the same class of society, such
as school classmates, boys scout, girls guide, chorister, football team, and social child. Each
of these peer groups has its code of behaviour, which may or may not adhere to the advanced
standard. Even very young children build a sense of self through their perceptions of essential
individuals in their environment, such as family, teachers, and peers; the peer group becomes
an agency of enculturation and learning. As a youngster grows older, his peer group or
partner is likely to become more important to him than his parents or instructors, according to
Darville (2001). Peer group pressure also influences the development of children socializing
skills. These early friendships help children learn to negotiate and relate to others, including
their siblings and other family members. They learn from a peer how to cooperate and
socialize according to group norms and group-sanctioned modes of behaviour. What a
youngster value, know, wear, eat, and learn may influence their peers.
Education is the backbone of the individual which ensuring to be reflecting in the society as
mirror for healthy environment. Peers group and education are closely interdependent each;
education can mould the child behaviour and ensuring that students attain the mastery of
educational purposes through peers’ group. In the school observed that the student’s success
on academic performance determined and reflected by their level of peer pressure. So, the
peer group is a crucial in transformation in many capacities of an individual’s life. Peer group
interaction is important role in each individual life for improving intellectual, moral, rapid
physical, emotional and social and psychological. Academic performance also refers to that
in what way sound a student’s achieving his activities and studies.
Steinberg (2005) suggests that academic performance encompasses students’ ability and
performance; it is multi-dimensional; it is intricately associated to human growth and
cognitive, emotional and social physical development.
SUBTANCTIVE CONTENT
Who is an adolescent?
Adolescence (meaning ‘to grow up’ from Latin ‘adolescere’) (Chambers, 1993) describes the
developmental period between childhood and adulthood and is characterised by substantial
physical, cognitive, social and affective. The World Health Organisation defines adolescents
as people aged between 10 and 19 years, so equivalent to the second decade of life.
Defining who a peer is.
Peers, derived from the Latin ‘par’ meaning equal (Chambers, 1993), describes individuals
who are equals for instance in terms of their age, status or skills. In the adolescent literature
the term peers usually refer to individuals in the same life stage.
According to the findings, there is a positive and significant association between peer
pressure and academic achievement among students. This means that when students are
under positive peer pressure their academic performance improve but when it is a negative
influence the academic success surfer as a result.
Impact of Positive Peer Pressure:

It is universally acknowledged that our peers are the most influential people in our lives;
they impact our goals, attitudes, and the ways we think and act. Teenagers can be
motivated to accomplish more and aim higher through competition and exchange of
information with their peers. Peer pressure can serve as powerful encouragement towards
beneficial behaviour, and more often influences students positively as opposed to
negatively. Some people on form to such ways because as they say, “Everyone is doing
it.” Peer pressure has positive impact because we can be pressurised into making the right
choices. It can teach us to be mature, responsible and do what’s right all the time for
ourselves. Positive peer pressure is often overlooked but does exist and may be described
as an influence to do what is right

It can be a way to help you learn some positive habits.

When you begin to follow a group of friends, then you have a chance to see all of their traits.
If you only focus on the negative choices they make, that will be the pressure that you feel to
conform. There are positive habits in each group that you can focus on as well. Observing
good choices and wanting to include them as part of your daily routine is beneficial. Let’s say
that your friends like to take a walk each morning to get some exercise, so they invite you to
come along. They don’t stop extending the invitation until you join them. Their
encouragement can be inspirational, and it can help you to get the physical activity that you
need.

Peer pressure can encourage excellence.

When students work with intelligent classmates, then they tend to perform better
academically. This result occurs because kits tend to imitate each other when they are unsure
of how to behave in a social environment. Children also reward one another for acting in
specific ways, such as smiles, laughter, or a high-five. These expectations that we have for
each other continue into adulthood. When there are clear expectations in place and you
surround yourself with people who want to do the right thing, then that will eventually
become the person you will become

It can help you to abandon negative habits.

The best peer groups will work with you to start reducing the influence of your bad habits. If
you are the person who is always late to events, then you would start to change this behavior
when seeing your friends arriving on time – all of the time. Gaining acceptance into this
group of friends can be enough to inspire the change you want to see in life. This benefit
works for other bad habits too, ranging from the foods you eat to even the shows you decide
to watch on television.
Peer pressure can help you to develop empathy.
When you spend time worrying about what everyone else things about you, then a deeper
awareness of your personal feelings begins to develop at the same time. This process will
eventually help your social skills because interacting with other people is the easiest way to
feel what it is like to be someone else. That is why we try to experience a situation from
another person’s perspective if we get upset with them. There are times when empathy can
feel like a disadvantage if it feels like you’re always helping the other person, but it is also a
process that will help you to mature. It can even help you to develop a high emotional IQ.

Negative peer influence on academic performance.

Peer pressure can change your goals in life:

There are times when you might want to identify with a group because it reinforces your
social identity in positive ways. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with this choice,
it can become a disadvantage if your association begins to change the goals you have in life,
when you find that your goals in life are changing because of what your friends want, then it
might be time to revaluate your circumstances.

Peer pressure decreases one’s self-confidence.

Peer pressure can build you up, but it can also tear you down. If you are usually self-
confident, it can cause you to second-guess who you are. If you experience a drop-in self-
esteem, then your confidence can begin to seep away. You might suddenly begin to question
who you are as person. If this process continues, then it can even create an adverse impact on
your psychological being, creating numerous problems in a person’s academic life.

It can change your focus on progress:

students who face peer pressure when they go to school encounter the same issues when they
are working toward a specific goal. A person’s peers are often the primary culprits behind a
low academic performance. When you run with a group of people who encourage you to
behave in ways that are contrary to your goals, then you might find yourself smoking,
drinking alcohol, or even taking drugs to fit in instead of studying for an exam.

It can cause you to lose your identity.

When you are making choices to gain acceptance into a group of friends, then you are
changing who you are at a core level to please someone else. Instead of focusing on your
identity, you shift it to become something that others want to see. Although it can feel good
to experience acceptance, this emotion can be short-lived because the friends who demand
compliance through peer pressure are usually the first to walk away from you in life. If other
people are asking you to change, then they aren’t really your friends. True friendships
embrace your strengths and weaknesses as they are.
RECOMMENDATION

Based on the finding, it has been discovered that peer group pressure is in two ways, both
negative and positive. There are ways the teacher could help these students of peer to avoid
serious influence since students develop negatively and this could after their academic
performance. it was also discovered that peer influence is not always bad. The fact that many
students have confidence in their friends show also that they could be helped in terms of
studies when they are together especially boys, and they help them to grow in knowledge and
improve academically.

In line with the findings in the study, i recommend the following: There should be an
intervention program for the students which will help and expose them to resist negative peer
pressure and accept the positive peer pressure. One of the best is known is the (Drug Abuse
Resistance Education), this enables them to resist the pressure to use drugs and alcohol.
Teachers should use their teaching periods to teach and help these peers so that peer pressure
will not damage their future life. Parents should help their children financially so that they
will not because of money follow bad gangs and Parents should also find about their children
emotional needs because some children may not tell them problems but to their peers who is
closer to them than their parents. This research work will serve as a stimulant to other
scholars who may wish to carry out further research work on this area of study

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, children who experience negative feelings due to peer pressure are really
stressed, mentally and physically. Furthermore, it affects the process of shaping children’s
personality. A strong support from family is the key to maintain the positive effects of peer
pressure and prevent the negative ones.

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