Chapter IV

Analysis, Presentation and Interpretation of Data

This chapter is concerned with data presentation, analyses and interpretation of

the result of data collected from the questionnaire administered to the area of study.

4.1 Research Question 1

Table 3. Mean Scores and Percentage of the Peer Pressure of 5th Year Engineering
Students

Programs Mean % Dec.

Graph 1. Percentage Distribution of the Peer Pressure of 5th Year Engineering

65.00%
60.00%
55.00%
50.00%
45.00%
CE ME EE

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 Table 3 as portrayed in graph 1 shows the different mean score of the peer

pressure of 5th year engineering students. It also shows that Civil Engineering students

have the highest mean score (2.533) for peer pressure as compared to other engineering

programs. This is defined as when people your own age encourage or urge you to do

something or to keep from doing something else, no matter if you personally want to do it

or not (Ryan, 2000).

A big factor to this figure is the number of female 5th year engineering students

coming from the CE program. This is supported by the study of Cross and Madson

(2007) which was cited by Okorie, A. N. (2014) stating that although the majority of the

researcher shows that parent attachment is stronger in female, female may also be more

likely than boys to draw support from other sources, such as peers, because female may

be more active in the pursuit of relatedness in the context of their peer relations.

As such, Okorie, A. N. (2014) also cited the study of Hay and Ashman (2003)

which they concluded that females were more influenced by peer relations than males.

On the other hand, all of the respondents have high peer pressure as shown in

aforementioned table. This is because the mean responses of the students are above the

criterion level of 2.00 set as bench mark for accepting an item. This implies that the

people that surround the student have a high impact towards them.

However, to determine the relationship of peer pressure and academic

performance among the 5th year engineering students, a Pearson – correlation is done.

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4.2 Research Question 2

Table 4. Pearson Correlation Test between Peer Pressure and Grade Point Average

Grade Point
Peer Pressure
Average
Pearson Correlation
-.070
1
.459
Sig. (2-tailed)
Peer Pressure
114
114
N
Pearson Correlation
-.070
1
Sig. (2-tailed) .459
Grade Point
Average 114
N 114

To answer this research question 2, the scores from the responses of the students

on peer pressure were correlated with their academic performance as portrayed by their

Grade Point Average.

Based from the abovementioned table, it shows a Pearson – correlation coefficient

( r ) of -0.070. This means that peer pressure and grade point average has a negative

weak correlation. Also, the computed P value of 0.459 is greater than the level of

significance (α = 0.05) which means that there is no significant relationship by Peer

Pressure and Grade Point Average.

Literature indicates that peers who are interested in academic issues are more

likely to associate with students who have the same interest. They often study together,

sharing course materials, and information (Gormly, K., 2013).

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 Many peer groups can exert a positive influence on their friend. It is thought

that intelligent student does help their peer bring up their academic performance.

Likewise, girls with good friends who are considered intelligent tend to do better

in school, all attributable to the fact that they share a common team of similar aspiration

(Landau, 2002)

On the other hand, in order to show the difference between the Peer Group

Influence on Academic Performance between male and female students in every program

in Engineering Department, mean and percentage scores was done.

4.3 Research Question 3

Table 5. Mean Scores of the Peer Group Influence on Academic Performance

of 5th Year Engineering Students

Male Female
SN ITEMS Mean Remark Mean Remark
N=57 N=57
1 I belong to a peer group 4.42 S. Agree 4.39 S. Agree
2 I spend much time with my peer group 3.88 Agree 3.59 Agree
3 My current performance in engineering 2.79 Disagree 3.08 Agree
subjects is worse
4 My current performance in engineering 3.14 Agree 2.96 Disagree
subjects is better than the previous one
before I met my friends
5 I often skip classes to spend time with 3.00 Undecided 2.71 Disagree
my friends
6 I and my friends are always punctual to 2.77 Disagree 2.96 Disagree
class
7 I and my friends compete for good 2.86 Disagree 2.82 Disagree
grades

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8 We study together after class 3.39 Agree 3.39 Agree
9 We always help each other with urgent 4.12 S. Agree 3.80 Agree
academic difficulties
10 My friends have assisted me improve 3.65 Agree 3.49 Agree
my grades
11 I and my friends always solve any 3.33 Agree 3.72 Agree
assignment given to us by our instructors
12 My friends like to persuade me in the 3.60 Agree 3.39 Agree
class while the lesson is going on
13 We always participate into our classes 3.21 Agree 3.45 Agree
14 I and my friends always study together 3.63 Agree 3.91 Agree
before examination and test
15 I and my friends dislike engineering as a 2.95 Disagree 2.69 Disagree
course/program

As seen in Table 5, this implies that all of the respondents are aware that they

belong to a peer group and spend much time with them (male mean =3.88, female mean

=3.59). However, male respondents imply that their current performance in engineering

subjects is better than the previous one before I met my friends with a mean 3.15 unparalleled to

that of female which is 2.96 (disagree) Yet on the contrary, students acknowledge that

somehow peer groups help each them with academic difficulties (mean =4.12) for male

and (mean =3.80) for female.

Generally, it can be seen from Table 5 that both male and female students agreed

on seven items (2, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14) and disagreed on three items (6, 7 and 15)

and strongly agreed on the first item. This implies that upon observation, there’s not

much variation in terms of the responses between male and female students.

However, in order to see the significance between the mean responses of male and

female students, a t-test was done using the SPSS version 23 program. According to

Snedecor and Cochran (1989) t-test is used to determine if two variable means are equal.

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A common application is to test if a new process or treatment is superior to a current

process or treatment.

Table 6. t-Test difference Between the Peer Group Influence on Academic

Performance of Male and Female 5th Year Engineering Students

Variable N Mean SD Df t-value p-value Remarks

Male 57 3.38245614 0.498169714 Not

Table 6 showed the difference between the academic achievement of male and

female students respondents that are involved in peer group. The male students have a

mean of 3.38245614 while the female students have a mean of 3.357116402. The p-

value of 0.8892115 is greater than the alpha value (α= 0.05). This means that, there is no

significant difference between the academic performance of male and female students

that are involved in peer group. This finding was supported by the study of Bankole and

Ogunsakin (2015) whose results revealed that there is no difference of gender (male or

female) on the academic performance of secondary school students.

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