FULL RESEARCH PAPER

HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGH LANGUAGE RESEARCH PAPER THE FRIVOLOUS THINGS COLLEGE STUDENTS DO WHEN THEY ARE UNDER PEER PRESSURE Instructor: TRAN MY UYEN Student: BUI THI DIEM TRINH Student ID: 18DH710605 Class: BA1802 Ho Chi Minh City, June 16th, 2021 ABSTRACT Peer pressure is a current problem that most students have to suffer one way or another The impacts of peer pressure are various and unpredictable, so it leads students to run for some frivolous things in daily things that they don't even think about before This study aims to determine things that students tend to when they are affected by their peers and how they are changing their mind when they are under peer pressure It investigates whether the relationship between peer pressure and frivolity has affected students' life In this context, peer pressure is as obesity, people could everything to lose weight, but most of those things are often toxic To emphasize the hypothesis that peer pressure is the catalyst that leads students to something frivolous, an online survey was posted on Facebook and Zalo Respondents were Huflit students from the first year to the fourth year, they had to answer 10 questions about something related to their feelings about peer pressure and frivolous things The results showed that most students accepted they sometimes tend to something to follow their peers, and those who feel peer pressure are envious of their peers for everything they have Base on the results, peer pressure contributes partly the behavior and attitude’s students, from something basic to something important In college years, friends are whom students spend the most time with, so they cannot avoid doing things that they wouldn’t normally before to fit with their friends It seems that they become another people and they gradually lose their true value Choosing clothes or buying stuff is not to satify students’ demands anymore, they will think how their friends or peers react when they something new Therefore, it is unavoidable for students to follow their peers one way or another Doing things unnecessary will be good if students realize they are better when they shape themselves like their friends Everything depends on students’ perception On this basic, the relationship between peer pressure and motivation should be conducted to get a better perspective about “positive peer pressure” INTRODUCTION Nowadays, the term of peer pressure is not unfamiliar to many people, especially youngsters On the daily routine, no students can refuse that they haven’t ever heard the complaints or the comparisons from their parents about “the other children” This stuff is an objective factor, but we cannot ignore the subjective factors Therefore, in this research, we will dip into how students feel peer pressure and things they did when they feel peer pressure Although various studies have been conducted to point out problems of peer pressure, insufficient attention has been focused on frivolous things students tend to when they feel peer pressure In this study, the relationship between peer pressure and frivolity will be explored further The main objects of this research are Huflit students who are in vulnerable and sensitive times Because of their unstable psychology, they tend to something unusual or imitate someone whom they usually meet as their peers It first shows the frivolous things that students sometimes do, then this study will point out the misunderstanding about peer pressure, and finally addresses the shortages in the research that need to be done soon LITERATURE REVIEW Peer pressure is like a disease and no one gets immune to it Everyone has to accept that they have already experienced this kind of pressure at least once in life Most exceptionally, college students are those who easily get into peer pressure because they are vulnerable and in the period of transition into adulthood At this time, friends play an important role in their life, students sometimes feel kind of turmoil when they and their friends have nothing in common That is a symptom of peer pressure which is defined in many ways According to the Cambridge Dictionary, peer pressure is defined as "the pressure that you feel to behave in a certain way because your friends or people in your groups expect it." Among parental pressure, teacher pressure, peer pressure which can make students something ill-conceived, peer pressure is unavoidable for many kind of ages, but students are the most vulnerable ones That is the reason why peer pressure leads students to some frivolous things The following reasons will attempt to support this hypothesis According to a research of website Addiction Center which was published in 2011, there were 310,000 students using marijuana and 636,000 of them using heroin That led to several accidental deaths up to 1,717 in 2001 College life means no more parents' control, no more privacy interference, no more curfew, so students can be in their control But they will start the series of party lifestyle days with their friends whom they will spend the most time in this period Accompanying with the independent life is the fear feeling of loneliness Because of the fearfulness of being isolated, students tend to try to something they wouldn’t normally before The study of Pham Bich Diep, Ronald A Knibee, and two other co-authors who used multi-level to analyze the factors of alcohol consumption of Vietnamese students This study was published in 2016 had conclusions that the drinking contexts (aspects of timing, social aspects, or locational aspects) take a larger proportion in alcohol using than the drinking motives, but the drinking motives still account for a large percentage And drinking motives followed by enhancement, coping, and conformity motives And drinking is unavoidable when students are in a group of drinking people Additionally, peers also have influences on products purchase decisions According to Bachman in 1993, there was too little research on the topic of peer pressure and its influences on product purchase decisions in the consumer attitude In order to fill this gap, a study was made by Makgosa and Mohube which focus in Botswana to acknowledge the rule peer pressure shape college students consumers’ products purchase decisions (2007) The products are divided into four kinds including publicly consumed luxuries (sunglasses), privately consumed luxuries (cell phone), publicly consumed necessities (shoes), privately consumed necessities (toothpaste), and the findings demonstrated that public products such as shoes and sunglasses are more attractive for more peer influences than private products because it is consumed by the eyes of their peers (Makgosa and Mohube, 2007) No one can please everyone and no one certainly does not want to be underestimated by people who take our true value for granted (Nicole Albion, 2021) And buying stuff to please peers or friends involves money managing of students, these problems are too complicated to solve (Nicole Albion, 2021) Nowadays, social media has paved a broader pressure for peers to influence the students’ life There are three main essential parts which are mentioned by Richard Santiago including appearances and preferences, mindset and behavior, beliefs and aspirations (Richard Santiago, 2017) An article in the journal Body Image explained that female college students often compare their body images negatively with other girls on Facebook and the article showed that 227 of them spend more time on Facebook and concern about their appearance This will make profound psychological consequences for college students Richard stated because this is considered to be the time that students start to cultivate themselves and their habits will set them for the rest of their Abdulkadir Jeilani Mohamoud researched in 2014 on how social networking sites (SNS) have pervasion in Mogadishu youth societies The research was conducted on the young adults between 17-22 in the levervey and turn them into four main groups: Group 1: Things that affect to body image Group 2: Things that related to finance Group 3: Things that related to alcohol Group 4: The feelings of students in the pros and cons of peer pressure Results of the survey The first question is "How often you fast the food to have a perfect body like your friends? There are 62,9% of students ( 22 students) said that they sometimes skip meals and follow an unscientific diet to get thinner, 22,9% of students ( students) said that they never fast the food, and finally there are only 4% of them ( students) said that they usually follow this negative thing We can see that most of the students are wanting to lose weight quickly and there are no ways that can help them except for fasting the meals or using the weight-loss drugs which are popular in the quick result For this reason, it also points out that students can something that affect their health with expectations to have a good look like their friends Figure 1: The percentage of students who fast the meals for perfect body With the second question about "How often you use up all your pocket money to buy an item and skip the meals to make up for it?" The answer of students who said usually took 17,1% ( students), and approximately 20% of them (7 students) said that they never use all of their pocket money to buy their items Surprisingly, the number of students who said that they sometimes spend their money and have to skip the meal to make up for it accounted for 62,9% It is provided that students tend to enjoy and follow the trends on social media or like their peers so that they will buy stuff like them no matter how they will be hungry or lack money for the next few days This situation is no more unfamiliar to most of the students now and they even don't know which purposes for buying this stuff as well Clearly, when students are under peer pressure, they will think that their peers are always right and they feel that they should imitate their peers in many ways Figure 2: The percentage of students who buy things with all their money Another figure that relates to student's finance is "Why youngsters often choose luxurious places to eat, even if they are not financially suitable?" Most of the students said that they want to show up their luxurious lifestyle on social media This choice accounted for 54,3%, it can prove partly about the unreal life that students are chasing and dreaming of Meanwhile, there are 17,2% of students ( students) reported that sometimes they choose to eat at a luxurious restaurant to treat themselves after they have achieved or attempted something Finally, the proportion of people who said that they want to prove their level to their friends took 28,6% (10 students), and this is not a small number Therefore, the more money students spend on frivolous things, the more disappointed they get because they will never feel satisfied with what they have, they think that they should get what their friends have to fit in with them Figure 3: Reasons for students choosing luxurious restaurants despite lack of money The third group related to some factors that lead students to alcohol path The first question for this group is "Is it necessary to go to a bar or pub to keep up with your friends?" and most of them told that is an unnecessary activity which has 77,1% ( 29 students) choose this answer However, there are still some students who think that is essential things they have to in order to get fit in with their friends This means they will feel waste their youth if they don't go to bars or pubs Figure 4: Opinions of students about going to bar or pub The second question of group is "Although you don't like alcohol, all of your friends drink that, you think you should give it a try?" Surprisingly, the number of people who said they may drink if all their friends drink are equal to the number of students who said they will not Each answer accounted for 42,9% ( 15 students for each), and there are 14,3% of students who have to drink beers no matter how they hate them because they can not lose their friends Figure 5: The percentage of students who accept to drink alcohol although they don’t like it 10 The last group is the opinions of students on how they think when they have some symptoms of peer pressure The first question for this group is multiple choice like the questions above "Are you being led by frivolous things?" Because they are done these previous questions, they can recognize that they are running for frivolity and some of them who never think they are like that before can understand more about their situation The percentages of the three answers are approximate, and most of them said they maybe a frivolous thing which has 37,1% and students who said they are totally led by the frivolity have 28,6% We can see that they are gradually comprehending their problems so that they can reduce it as much as possible Figure 6: The perception of students about the frivolity With the last question, students are allowed to write down their short answers about their opinion of peer pressure The question is "According to your opinion, are peer influences your pressure or your motivation? Why?", and the answer for most of the students is pressure They said that whenever they saw their peers achieve the best things like good grades or better jobs, they feel envious The feeling of envy make them feel pressure, because of envy, they could anything to keep up with their peers no matter the consequences will be 11 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Discussion & Limitation The results indicate a correlation between peer pressure and frivolous things which Huflit undergraduates have suffered at least once The results are mostly meet my expectation in hypothesis that peer pressure is the catalyst which makes students run for frivolous things As we can see, the frivolity is never a good thing to chase and yearn for Students easily get misunderstanding that running for the frivolity means they love themselves and they think they deserve to it Instead of chasing their sustainable desire like their dream jobs or the wholesome lifestyle, students are going to satisfying themselves by temporary favorites or imitating their friends’ models who they spend most of their time in school Peer pressure invisibly affects students on how they expose their physical appearance and their mind First of all, there is one question which the result doesn’t meet the expectation that whether students need to go to bar or pub to keep up with their friends or not, and most of them said it is superfluous, there are many factors to prevent them from going to bar such as they have to spend a lot of money, they are not allowed to go home lately The result in figure showed that most of Huflit students, especially juniors, choose to lose weight unscientifically by skipping the meals There are many reasons for diet, and according to the results, having a perfect body like their peers is their priority and students said that they sometimes it Moreover, when students see their friends or peers have a luxurious item, they cannot avoid their aspiration about it The results also demonstrated the situation that students will spend all of their pocket money to buy that item and the feeling of regret afterward So the only thing they could to relieve the regret is skip the meals They can skip the breakfast or lunch to make up for their spent money However, this situation will repeat many times because they realize they can something to compensate for money they already spent In addition, a virtual lifestyle is no more unfamiliar to youngsters nowadays Students can be online anytime and anywhere they are, so they are partially influenced by their peers on social media and they will tend to imitate the other lifestyle because they think it is so cool and opulent That is the reason why students choose to eat at luxurious restaurant in spite of lacking financial ability They just want to boast that they are rich or they are cool on social media That ostentation makes students forget who they are and what they have in their real life When I mention to alcohol, the number of people who said “no” and who said “maybe” are equal in the question that whether they will drink alcohol to keep up with their friends or not For those who said “no” means they are mentally strong, 12 they are not roused by the attraction of friends For those who said “maybe”, this can be “yes” and can be “no”, this means they probably drink alcohol if their friends really want them to drink no matter how they don’t like alcohol The last question in all multiple choice question to clarify how much students think they are led by the frivolous things after answering those questions above The number of people who said “maybe” and “yes” are approximate This means that they partly realize they are running for something unnecessary and that is not what they truly want, in other ways they feel kind of peer pressure The last question already exposed the student’s attitude about peer pressure Instead of they feel incentive when they saw their peers have a better job, get a good score in class, they tend to be envious about the other achievement This jealousy will motivate them to unexpected things to get good things like their peer by all means Limitation In this results, most of Huflit students were on the midterm examinations, so they don’t have enough time to the survey which only took days That is the reason why there are only 35 students who did the survey which resulted in not enough participants as intended I will post this survey again after the final exam in order to make sure there is enough information as much as possible Conclusion & recommendation This research aimed to identify some frivolous things that Huflit students tend to when they are under peer pressure Based on quantitative and qualitative analysis on social media, it can be clear to notice that there is a close relation between peer pressure and the frivolity which make students thoughtlessly chase to The results indicate that when students feel their peers as a pressure, they are scared of their peers and tend to something like their peers To get better perception about peer pressure for students, further research is needed to determine the relationship between peer pressure and motivation in order that students can deeply understand both the positive and negative sides of peer pressure and they can know what they should 13 REFERENCES Addiction Center (2021) College Students and Drug Abuse Retrieved from https://www.addictioncenter.com/college/ Abdulkadir Jeilani Mohamoud (2014) “How Social Networking Sites in Changing Mindset of Youth- Case Study Mogadifu-City Youth” Retrieved from http://almarifasom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMPACT-OF-SOCIALNETWORKING-SITES-IN-CHANGING-MINDSET-OF-YOUTH.pdf Cambridge Dictionary Peer Pressure Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/vi/dictionary/english/peer-pressure Nicole Albion (2021) “How to Deal with Peer Pressure to Spend More Money” Retrieved from https://everfi.com/blog/k-12/ideas-for-students-dealing-with-financial-peer-pressure/ P.B.Diep; Tan, Frans E.S; Knibbe Ronal A (2016) “A Multilevel Study of Students in Vietnam: Drinking Motives and Drinking Context as Predictors of Alcohol Consumption” Retrieved from https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/7/710 Rina Makgosa & Kago Mohube (2007) “Peer Influences on Young Adults’ Products Purchase Decisions” Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237488864_Peer_influence_on_young_adults'_pro ducts_purchase_decisions Richard Santiago (2017) “Impact of Social Networking Sites in Changing Mindset of Youth” Retrieved from http://almarifasom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMPACT-OF-SOCIALNETWORKING-SITES-IN-CHANGING-MINDSET-OF-YOUTH.pdf Valenzuely (2013) “Peer Pressure and Social Media” Retrieved from https://cvdapc.org/peer-pressure-social-media/ 14 APPENDIX Survey Questionnaire Your educational status Are you being led by frivolous things? Have you ever been fasted the food to have a perfect body like your friends? Have you ever used up all your pocket money to buy an item and skipped the meals to make up for it? Why youngsters often choose luxurious places to eat, even if they are not financially suitable? Is it necessary to go to a bar or pub to keep up with your friends? When choosing clothes, which factor is the most influential to you? Although you don’t like alcohol, all of your friends drink that, you think you should give it a try? Suppose you are struggling with things you don’t like to please other people, you think is it worth it? 10 According to your opinion, are peer influences your pressure or your motivation? Why? (optional) 15 ... the rest of their Abdulkadir Jeilani Mohamoud researched in 2014 on how social networking sites (SNS) have pervasion in Mogadishu youth societies The research was conducted on the young adults between... relationship between peer pressure and frivolity will be explored further The main objects of this research are Huflit students who are in vulnerable and sensitive times Because of their unstable... point out the misunderstanding about peer pressure, and finally addresses the shortages in the research that need to be done soon LITERATURE REVIEW Peer pressure is like a disease and no one