RESEARCH CHAPTER TWO

FOREIGN STUDY

This study was conducted by Dr. Paula Whittaker. The objective of this study is to review

the evidence for the effectiveness of peer support to improve mental health well-being in

university students. The study states that many universities use peer support programs to aid

students but there are no guidelines on the most effective way of facilizing the emotional well-

being. Six electronic databases (Medline, Embase, British Education Index(BEI), Australian

Education Index(AEI) PsychINFO and Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts(ASSIA))

were searched during December 2017. This study has not found evidence to suggest that peer

support programs increase the mental well-being of university students. This study is

inconclusive in answering that peer support is effective among university students.

A study conducted by Joel J. P. Ogutu, Peter Odera, and Samwel N. Maragia (2017),

examined the influence of peer pressure in the decision making of students. They used

questionnaires to collect data from respondents. ( Stratified, purposive and simple random

sampling technique were used to obtain a sample size 364 respondents across the seven sub

Counties.) This research found out that if peer pressure increases, career decision making of

students also increases significantly in the same direction. The research concluded that peer

pressure influenced the career decision making of secondary school students in Busia County.

They recommended that career guidance in school should enhance awareness over peer pressure

in talking career decision making.

and how it affects the process of decision making. The study was conducted in Nairobi County.

This study has four objectives: to establish the prevalence of peer pressure among adults, to find

out the factors that trigger peer pressure among adults, to investigate how pressures among adult

peers can result in a lack of independent decisions as well as responsible and irresponsible

behavior, and to determine the importance using independent judgment when making a decision.

Data was collected using structured and unstructured questionnaires. The respondents are aged

35 years to 60 years old. Furthermore, the study found out that peer pressure does not always

affect decision making but it affects the behavior of an individual.

Past research has shown that peers can strongly influence such risky choices,

understanding how other risky decisions affect one’s own risky decisions is still lacking.

Research by Livia Tomova and Luiz Pessoa (2018), developed a behavioral task to measure how

information about peer choices affects risky decision-making and they called it Balloon

Analogue Risk Task. They tested that novel paradigm in a sample of 52 college young adults.

The researchers found that risky decisions were influenced in the direction of the made choices

of others - riskier choices led to riskier choices of others while safer choices led to less risky

behavior of others. Moreover, this discovery indicates that information about peer choices is

sufficient to shape one’s own risky behavior.

This study is conducted by Konstantin E. Lucks, Melanie Luhrmann, and Joachim Winter

(2017), that talks about the effects of peers on risky decision making among adolescents from the

age of 13 years to 15 years. The researchers randomly allocated school classes to two social

interaction treatments. Students were first allowed to discuss their choices with a peer before

individually making choices in an incentivized lottery task. They began to operate a control
group where adolescents make choices without their peers. Therefore, they found out that friends

and classmate are matched on socio-demographic characteristics but not on risk preferences. The

result also says that social interaction strongly increases the similarity of teenagers’ risky

choices.

LOCAL STUDY

LOCAL LITERATURE

According to an article written by Rose Orillana (2018), stated that peer pressure gives

the adolescents to have a difficult time adjusting to “their” beliefs, principles, and decisions.

Communication with parents and teachers and strong working beliefs are the ways to avoid being

peer pressured. (ELAB DIFFICULTIES)

FOREIGN LITERATURE

According to an article by Sherri Gordon (2018), teens are daily influenced by their

peers. Spending a whole time can influence them and they may not realize it. Furthermore, some

teens in a group will influence other kids to participate in bullying. Consequently, peer pressure

and yearn for attention cause some teens to engage in impulsive acts and decisions.

According to an article in Secure Teen (2015), the adolescence stage lasts for a few years

and it is still considered to be one of the most significant stages of a personal life. Moreover,

during this stage, adolescents will engage in a certain situation that requires them to choose the
best decision. Being pressured in making important decisions can lead to teens getting tangled up

with their peers to an unacceptable extent while conceding to things that may not be in their

favor. Therefore, decision-making and peer pressure among teens has a direct relationship and

has a negative effect.

According to an article in Bond and Beautiful (2017), peer pressure is also referred as

peer influence, a certain behavior in which their attitudes are influenced to do something reckless

just to be part of the group. In addition, the article includes that students are all victims of peer

pressure from their peers. However, peers can make an impact on the student which is difficult to

withstand and may force them to make decisions that they will regret.

According to Zeena Harakeh and Anouk de Boer (2018), teens are more likely attracted

in risk-taking behaviors because of passive (imitation) peer pressure. Thus, communication

through messages can give information about their own risk-taking and their decision-making

perspective can be used to identify the background on risk-taking in their stages.

According to an article in Heads-up Scholastic (2015), stated that when a person drives in

making his or her decision, different parts of the brain join and spring into action. Decision-

making process happens naturally and one factor could affect them is peers which drives them

into poor decisions. the article also includes that teens often do risky things when their friends

are present.