Extent of Peer Influence: It’s Relation to the Social Well-being and Mathematics Academic Achievement of the Students

: This descriptive-correlation study aimed to find out the extent of peer influence and its relation to the social well-being and academic performance of the college students. The study was conducted at Iloilo State College of Fisheries-San Enrique Campus during the first semester of academic year 2018-2019. Probability sampling technique was utilized, specifically the simple random technique in choosing the respondents. Sixty-four (64) students responded to the duly-validated researchers-made instrument. The respondents determined the extent of peer influence in which they are affected and the status of their social well-being. Data gathered were interpreted using the mean and Pearson’s r. The findings of the study showed that the extent of peer influence of the students was “high” and the status of their social well-being was “sociable”. The level of academic performance of students is described as “good”. Furthermore, the result showed that there is a marked or moderate and highly significant relationship between the extent of peer influence and social well-being and a negligible relationship was found between the extent of peer influence and academic performance of the college students.

tragedies such as Columbine directly on themselves rather than on parents, gun laws or media violence. The poll also reported that the country's youth suggest that one of the best ways to prevent future occurrences is to find ways to foster better communication among students, and to break down the barriers that apparently create hostility between groups.
This research shows that peer influence can be a scary phenomenon for both adolescents and adults in the school setting. As already stated, that peers can also provide many positive elements in an adolescent's life, it is important, however, to remember that peer influence can potentially have a deadly impact or other various negative effects. It is vital for education-related professionals to understand and be aware of the complex aspects of peer influence in order to stop these negative effects before they occur.
Thus, the researchers have in mind to conduct this study to find out the extent of peer influence and its relation to the social well-being and mathematics academic achievement of the college students.

Statement of the Problem
This study aimed to determine the relationship between the extent of peer influence and the social well-being, and mathematics academic achievement of the college students at Passi City College.
Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions: 1.
What is the extent of peer influence among college students? 2.
What is the social well-being of the college students? 3.
What is the level of mathematics academic achievement of the college students? 4.
Is there a significant relationship between the extent of peer influence and mathematics academic achievement of the college students? 5.
Is there a significant relationship between the extent of peer influence and social well-being of the college students?

METHODOLOGY Research Design
The research work used the descriptive-correlation method to determine whether the variables in the population of interest are related to each other. The critical distinguishing characteristic of this research design is the effort to estimate a relationship, as distinguished from simple description (Fox, 1969).

Locale of the Study
The study was conducted at Passi City College, Passi City, Iloilo.

Respondents of the Study
The respondents of this study are the sixty-four (64) second year college students at Passi City College enrolled during the second semester of academic Year 2019-2020.

Data Gathering Procedure
Two (2) data gathering instruments was used in this study: the Extent of Peer Influence Questionnaire and the Social Well-Being Questionnaire.
The data gathered were subjected for statistical analysis using the following statistical tools; Mean and Pearson r. Table 1 presents the extent of peer influence among the second-year college students at Passi City College. The result showed that the extent of peer influence was described as "high" which is reflected in the mean of 3.74. This may imply that students are always engaged with their peers' activities, wherein they spend most of their time. It is also worth considering that statement number 5 (My peers and I try our best to get good grades) is described as "very high" (M=4.21) which means that students are influenced by their peers for better academic achievement. On the other hand, statement number 20 (I learn to skip classes because of my friends), a negative statement, is also described as "very high" which means that students are not in favor of the statement and that they are not skipping classes together with their peers.

Extent of Peer Influence of the College Students
According to Black (2002), peer groups provide a forum where teens construct and reconstruct their identities. Castro Giovanni (2002) stated that at no other stage of development is one's sense of identity so unstable. A peer-labelling process may be contributing to the construction of positive identities for some adolescents but negative identities for others (Downs & Rose, 1991).
James Jaccard, professor of psychology at the University at Albany in New York, noted that young people might be influenced as much by what they think their peers are doing as by what they are really doing. A young person may think that everyone is smoking or everyone is sexually active and may therefore feel pressure to try those behaviors (cited in Fischhoff, Cromwell, & Kipke, 1999).
The result may also be congruent to the results of the study of Burns and Darling (2002) which states that self-Conscious worrying about how others will react to future actions is the most common way adolescents are influenced by their peers.
The subtler form of peer pressure is known as peer influence, and it involves changing one's behavior to meet the perceived expectations of others (Burns & Darling, 2002).  Table 2 reflects the social well-being of the second-year college students at Passi City College. The result shows that the status of the social well-being of the students was described as "sociable" as reflected in the mean of 3.48. The data revealed that students are able to socialize and be comfortable to interact with other people, their peers. Furthermore, it could be noted that negative statements number 3 and 8 are both interpreted as "not sociable" and "less sociable" which means that students have many friends and that they are liked by their friends.

Social Well-being of the College Students
The result of this study is supported by the study of Wrightsman (1991) and Horney (1945) that says individual who illustrate social acceptance trust others, think that Others are capable of kindness, and Volume 5, Issue 3, May-June 2023 5 believe that people can be industrious, socially accepting people hold favorable views of human nature and feel comfortable with others. Alvermann and Phelps (2005), Vacca and Mraz (2011) stated that one way for students to shoulder the responsibility for learning is for them to be the readers, writers, speakers, listeners, and thinkers in the classroom through active engagement in social interaction with others.
Routman (2005) also contends "students learn more when they are able to talk to one another and be actively involved" (p. 2017). In short, social interaction is vital to the learning process.  Table 3 reflects the mathematics academic achievement of the second-year college students during the academic year 2019-2020. Data show that majority of the students have "good" mathematics academic performance or 45.31% have grades which ranges from 86-88.

Mathematics Academic Achievement of the College Students
Furthermore, when the overall mean grade was computed, the result revealed a grade of 88.21 which is described as "good". This indicates that the students were doing well in their class.

Relationship between the Extent of Peer Influence and Mathematics Academic Achievement of the Students
The relationship between the extent of peer influence and mathematics academic achievementof the college students at Passi City College is presented in table 4. It was determined using the Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient.
The result revealed that there is a negligible and not significant relationship found between the extent of peer influence and mathematics academic achievement of the students, r(64)=.038,p=.765>.05. The null hypothesis which states that there is no significant relationship between the extent of peer influence and mathematics academic achievement of the students was not rejected.
The result implies that students' mathematics academic achievement is not affected by their extent of peer influence, in which they are able to participate well in their class despite of peer pressures.
The result is supported by the study of Vaquera and Kao (2008) which states that stronger friendships may provide adolescents with an appropriate environment to develop in a healthy way and to achieve good academic results. Adolescents with reciprocal friendships mention high levels of feelings of belonging in school; at the same time, reciprocity and feelings of belonging have positive effects in academic results.
In contrast with the result, Ryan (2000) found that peer groups were influential regarding changes in students' intrinsic value for school (i.e., liking and enjoying) as well as achievement (i.e., report card grades). The peer group was not, however, influential regarding changes in students' utility value for school (i.e., importance and usefulness). It was found that associating with friends who have a positive affect toward school enhanced students' own satisfaction with school, whereas associating with friends who have a negative affect toward school decreased it. Landau (2002) stated that an adolescent's expectancy of success was the primary predictor of academic effort and grades. A sense of belonging and support of a peer group was also significantly associated with these outcomes.

Relationship between the Extent of Peer Influence and Social Well-being of the Students
The extent of peer influence was correlated with social well-being of the students using the Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. It revealed a marked or moderate and highly significant relationship, r(64)=.536,p=.001<.05. Thus, the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant relationship between the extent of peer influence and social well-being was rejected.
A literature that says adolescents with reciprocal friendships mention high levels of feelings of belonging in school (Vaquero & Kao, 2008).
On the other hand, having friends allows to share experiences and feelings and to learn how to solve conflicts. Not having friends, on the other hand, leads to social isolation and limited social contacts, as there are fewer opportunities to develop new relations and social interactional skills. Friendship is also positively associated to psychological well-being (Ueno, 2004), whilst a conflicting relation with peers is negatively associated with health (Laftman & Östberg, 2006).
The researchers found that peer behaviors are more likely to affect the adolescent than parental behaviors, whereas parental norms are more likely to affect the adolescent than peer norms. Parents have had a longer time to influence adolescents and retain a responsibility to represent the standards of the adult world. Peers, in contrast, may be shunned if they attempt to impose standards on their adolescent friends but are likely to be omnipresent as behavioral models within schools (Biddle, Bank & Marlin, 2001). It is unfortunate that many adolescents do not have parents who are actively involved in their lives, do not provide appropriate supervision, and are unable to clearly communicate their values. This puts adolescents in an even greater danger of giving in to negative peer pressure.

Conclusions:
In view of the results and findings, the following conclusions were drawn: 1. The respondents are highly influenced by their peers in school. 2. The college students are sociable. 3. The respondents have performed well in their academics. 4. The respondents' mathematics academic achievement is not affected despite of high peer pressures and influences. 5. Students' social well-being is significantly affected by the influence of their peers.