Abstract

Peer pressure has become common in higher institutions like the Unity of Buea and affects the behaviour of youths. The purpose of this study is to determine “Peer pressure as a determinant of young people’s behaviour in the University of Buea”

The study was aimed at finding out peer pressure influences the behaviour of youths in the University of Buea. The study was conducted in the University of Buea with 40 EPY and 40 CST level 400 students constituting the selected sample for the study.

The research instrument for the study was an open ended questionnaire consisting of 20 research questions to find out how peer pressure influences the behaviour of youths in the University of Buea. The simple descriptive statistic was use to analyzed this data collected from respondents. The main findings of this study revealed that peer pressure influences the behaviour of youths in the University  of  Buea.

Thus,  the  specific  findings  revealed  that  indecent dressing does not affect young people’s sexual behaviour, peer pressure has  no  tangible  impact  on  students’  promiscuous  behaviour  in  the University  of  Buea.  Besides,  peer  pressure  influences  students’  indecent dressing in the University of Buea

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Peer pressure can be seen as the feeling that one must do the same things as peoples of one’s age and social group in order to be liked or respected by them. Although peer pressure can occur at any age, it is  most often experienced by young people. Common examples of peer pressure include the pressure to try drugs, engage in sexual activities, ditch school, cheat on tests or not be friends with certain people.

According to  Auer,  Jim,  Alley,  Cherniss,  Hilary,  and  Sluke  (2001),  Peer groups are usually cliques of friends who are about the same age. Peer pressure can begin at early childhood with children trying to get other kids to play the games they want. It generally increases through childhood and reaches its intensity in the preteen and teen years. Virtually all adolescents in middle and high school deal with peer pressure, often on a daily basis.

It is how children and teens learn to get along with others of their own age group and eventually learn how to become independent. Depending on the group  trying  to  apply  the  influence,  peer  pressure  can  be  negative  or positive. This chapter examines the following:   background to the study, statement  of  the  problem,  purpose/objectives  of  the  study,  research questions,  significance  of  the  study,  scope  of  the  study  and  operational definition of terms.

Background to the Study

Children and teenagers feel social pressure to conform to the group of peers with whom they socialize. This peer pressure can influence how children dress, what kind of music they listen to, and what types of behavior they engage in, including risky behaviors such as using drugs, cigarettes, and  alcohol,  and  engaging  in  sex.  The  intensity  of  peer  pressure  differs from situation to situation, (Koubek&Wickert, 2002).

However,  according  to  Koubek  &Wickert  (2002),  most  instances  of  peer pressure experienced by young children are negative. The most common instances are the pressure to drink alcohol, take drugs or smoke cigarettes to appear cool and to involve in sexual activities. They suggest handling negative  peer  pressure  by  using  humor,  changing  the  subject,  speaking directly to the person or seeking support from adults. Starting in middle school, children begin to spend more time with their friends and less time with their parents. In children ages eleven to fourteen, it is most common for members of these cliques to be of the same sex.

Children will spend a lot of time with friends in their clique, interacting by going to the movies or the mall, talking on the telephone, or chatting online with instant messaging. They know which kids belong to particular cliques and who the loners are. Within the cliques, talking about the opposite sex is popular as is making arrangements for out of school activities, (Koubek & Wickert, 2002).

Children also generally belong to a crowd, which is a larger group of kids from  several  cliques.  While  members  of  the  cliques  are  close  friends, members of the crowd outside a clique are casual acquaintances. Crowds are often large groups with common interests such as athletes (jocks), kids who like school (preppies), kids lacking good looks or social skills but who excel at particular intellectual interests (nerds), and drug users (druggies).

Some kids give in to peer pressure because they want to be liked, to fit in, or because they worry that other kids may make fun of them if they do not go along with the group. Others may go along because they are curious to try something new that others are doing. The idea that “everyone is doing it” may influence some kids to ignore their better judgment or their common sense.

Peer pressure can be extremely strong and seductive. Experiments have shown how peer pressure can influence children to change their minds from what they know for sure is acceptable behavior to unacceptable

behavior just because everyone else in their peer group is doing it. Observation has shown that all it takes for individuals to stand their ground on what they know is right is for one other peer to join them. That principle holds true for youth of any age in peer pressure situations (Auer, Jim, Alley, 2003).

Risky sexual behavior predisposes young people to a variety of sexuality associated problems including HIV. Strategies to prevent the spread of HIV and  other  sexually  transmitted  infections  have  focused  on  abstinence, being faithful, condom use and delayed sexual activity. However available evidences show that significant proportion of adolescents are engaged in risky sexual behaviors that expose them to a variety of sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDs and unwanted pregnancy.

Cherniss (2001) also postulated that, approximately half of the new HIV infections globally occur in the age group 15 to 24 years. In Ethiopia about 90% of the people living with HIV are believed to have acquired the infection before the age of 25 mainly through unprotected sexual intercourse. Most of them copy the habits from their peers. In order to feel belong to a certain group and level, young adolescents engage themselves in sexual activities so as to be accepted in a particular group. To them, although significant proportion of young people in Ethiopia are known to be involved in risky sexual behavior such as early sexual initiation, multiple partners.

According  to  Thompson  (2001),  sexual  relationships,  low  use  of condom, and sex in exchange of money identifying the factors associated with these behaviors so far have been focused on individual- level factors. Extant literatures revealed that peer norms influence sexual initiation and subsequent sexual behaviors. Adolescents who perceive their friends are engaged in sexual practices are more likely to adopt those same behaviors. Sexual risk behavior is affected and infested by a complex web of factors at the individual, family, school and peer levels. Understanding these interwoven and interconnected factors that influence the behavior of adolescent in most educational institutions is vital in designing and implementing indecent behavioral risk reduction interventions by school authorities.

In Cameroon like in other parts of the world, the negative influence of peers on the behavior of students or adolescents seems to be extremely high. Some adolescents see it as a social activity that must be done at a certain level in life, others see it as a fast means to raise income when they are in need and since they do not want to be the only bad girls or boys around, they lure their friends into it as well.

Peer pressure also occurs when a child’s or teen’s friends or other people of their age try to convince them to do something that is either harmful to their body or is against the law. Examples include drinking alcohol, taking drugs, smoking cigarettes, cutting classes,  vandalizing,  stealing  and  involving  in  sexual  activities.  Although teens usually know when something is bad for them, they often choose to do it because they want to be liked, to fit in, to be accepted, or because they’re afraid they’ll be looked down upon or made fun of.

A good number of University of Buea students spend most of their precious times in night clubs, bars   and hotels fulfilling their bodily desire instead to studying. This therefore also affects their attitude on regular school attendance and why not their academic performance. That is why more youths are infected with HIV/AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases as well as unwanted pregnancies that sometimes leads to abortion and sometimes loss of lives, (Koubek  & Wicket,  2002).

Theoretical Background

This study cuts across the following learning theories:

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory (1908). Coming from the Humanistic perspective, the theory is based on some premises. The first is that learning will happen when the educator (teacher) acting as a facilitator, establishes an atmosphere in which the learner feels comfortable to consider new ideas  and  is  not  threatened  by  external  factors.   Secondly,  that  human beings have a natural eagerness to learn. The theory is useful in because it establishes the fact that youths have some hierarchical needs to meet in the learning process or from their interactions with peers. One of such needs can be satisfying their sexual desires or doing what they observe others doing.

Another theory is Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development. This is one of the best-known theories of personality in psychology. Erikson believed that personality develops in a series of stages.   Erikson’s theory describes the impact of social experiences across the whole lifespan. One of  the  main  elements  of  Erikson’s  psychosocial  stage  theory  is  the development of ego identity. According to him, ego identity is the conscious sense of self that we develop through social interaction. Erikson further reiterates that our ego identity is constantly changing due to new experiences and information that we acquire in our daily interactions with others.

Albert  Bandura’s  Social  Learning  Theory  (1977).  The  theory’s  central concept  is  reciprocal  determinism,  whereby  the  increasing  factors  in learning are cognitive and environmental, acting on the learner’s behaviour (Bandura, 1977). That is to say, the learner is not a passive recipient of information but is an active participant in the learning context, hence the learner’s  behaviour  affects  the  environment  and  the  environment  also affects the learner’s behaviour.

Statement of the Problem

Based  on  observation  and  experience  in  the  University  of  Buea,  the researcher discovered that peer pressure activities such as drinking alcohol, taking  drugs,  smoking  cigarettes,  absenting  classes,  and  vandalizing, stealing and involving sexual activities are on the rise at the university most especially and seem to affect the behavior of most youths.

Though some students usually know when something is bad for them, they often choose to do it because they want to be liked and accepted in their social groups, or because they are afraid that they would be looked down upon or made fun of. A good number of University students spend most of their precious time in  night  clubs,  bars  and  hotels  fulfilling  their  bodily  desires  instead  of studying.

The end result sometimes is HIV/AIDS and or pregnancy for girls. These entire observations put together, generate a major worry on how peer pressure affects the behavior of students in the University. This has therefore, inspired the student researcher to investigate the effect of peer pressure on young people’s behavior at the University of Buea under which the following objectives have been crafted.

Objectives of the Study General Objective

Generally, this study seeks to find out the effect of peer pressure as a determinant of young people’s behavior in the University of Buea.

Specific Objectives

The specific objectives are as follows:

1. To find out the effect of peer pressure on students romantic relationships in the University of Buea.
2. To find out the effect of peer pressure on students indecent dressing at the University of Buea.
3. To find out the impact of peer pressure on students delinquent behavior University of Buea.
4. To find out the effect of peer pressure on students regular attendance of classes in university of Buea

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