1.0 Introduction of a Developmental Issue
Hong Kong primary and secondary school students are under constant academic pressure since they have no spare time to relax leading to psychological stress. In fact, it is difficult to change the education system. Since the beginning of the school year to the present day, the number of Hong Kong students who committed suicide rose to the highest levels. According to most of the students, school workload is just a fuse with “no joy, no hope, and no help.”
There is a case that happened in a middle school in Hong Kong. The school always wants to have a high academic success so its students are given a large study load and they are not given ample time to relax. In addition, most of the first year students struggle with making-friends, and even some of them reported that they felt lonely while at school. Alvin was a student in this school. He had no friends and never knew how to make friends, which made him unwilling to go to school for a long time. Afterwards, a group of students named “Paikias” approached Alvin and forced him to smoke. And after that, Alvin was ridiculed by the group “Paikias” and other classmates, which influenced this study to be conducted.
2.0 Analysis of Scenario
2.1 Importance of Peers
2.1.1 Socialization
Substantial evidence indicates that peers play very a very important role in children’s school adjustment process. Positive school adjustments is linked to a couple factors, such as being well accepted by one’s friends and peers, having close friends, developing friendships characterized by high levels of positive qualities as well as belonging or even participating in peer groups or friendships with other students who have adjusted well academically (Larson & Verma, 1999). As a result, peers have a great influence on children’s adjustment in schools. However, the correlation between peers and adjustment is less understood. There are a couple of mechanisms that have been proposed by different literatures, such as reinforcement, expectancy, socializations, informational, as well as emotional support and modeling. For instance, various studies have suggested that children with friends who are academically well adjusted are in a better position to become more academically well adjusted over time as they tend to model the behavior of their fiends (Berndt & Murphy, 2002). Additionally, the friends provide a great reinforcement for positive school behaviors as well as school studies. Similarly, it has been suggested that school children who have developed friendships in schools or who are well linked to their class mates tend to exhibit positive school adjustments as opposed to students who do not have friends or who or who are not well linked to their school mates.
Behavioral regulation from peers and friends in schools can also be understood from the perspective of socialization dimension. It can be attributed to the fact that the behavioral regulation has to do with norms, actions, and attitudes which tend to regulate or even shape behaviors of students in school setting. The social norms of one’s friends are most likely to play a regulative function since such norms will definitely influence how the student’s behavior will be responded to and interpreted. From the social learning theory, people tend to develop behaviors depending on how they learn and observe those they regard as their role models (Boulton, Don & Boulton, 2011). As a result, the friend’s behaviors, attitudes, and norms will greatly influence the behavior and attitudes of the students. Ideally, friends tend to provide suggestions as well as options regarding how students should engage in the schools activities, their way of thinking, evaluations, and reactions and motivation or engagements. Mutual agreements conceding different school aspects will greatly promote similarly and commonness among the peer groups (Harris, 1995). Additionally, positive adjustments in school settings will be influenced by positive development, which is in turn affected by how the peers are exposed to some positive regulating force. The values and norms of the peers groups will vary widely. The teenage subcultures can positively support and at the same time obstruct school adjustments. Having friends who ascribe to some conventional norms can move students further to attaining normative behaviors. At the same time, if the actions and values do not seem to support the student’s conventional norms, they may lead behaviors which are norm breaking or which lead to less school engagements.
2.1.2 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory
According to Maslow, people are motivated by the desire to achieve some needs. Maslow believed that people posses a given set of motivation system which is not necessarily related to rewards and other unconscious desires. The model provided by Maslow indicates that hierarchy of needs consists of five motivational needs, which are depicted as hierarchical levels placed in a pyramid (Boulton, Don & Boulton, 2011). The five stage needs model categorizes human needs into five major categories which include; psychological needs, safety needs, social needs, self esteem needs and self actualization needs. After one class of needs if fulfilled, these needs ceases to be a motivation and the person is now motivated to fulfill the next need (Parker & Asher, 1993). In the school setting, fulfilling of social needs is very important. It includes love as well as belongingness needs, which cover things such as friendships, intimacy, love, and affection. As a result, individuals tend to form work groups, family, and friends. Students may be motivated to form friendships in schools to fulfill belongingness needs. Belonging to a given group influences how a student adjusts to school programs. For instance, belonging to a given group will provide a sense of direction towards achieving a common goal (Lubbers et al., 2006). It may even provide a sense of security to the students as they feel that their needs can easily be catered for by their friends. Students may even form work groups in schools. For instance, in the case of the Hong Kong school, Alvin could form study groups with other friends who could assist each other in handling the challenging tasks. It could play a very important role in ensuring that the students do not get bored over assignments and other school tasks (Parker & Asher, 1993). Support and mutual care obtained from the groups lays an important role in shaping students behavior and the extent to which they will adjust to school programs.
2.1.3 Bronfenbrenner Ecological System
Child’s development is greatly influenced by the kind of the social relationships they form with the world around them. The ecological systems model offers a great approach which can be used to explain the interrelationships between child’s development and social relationships formed with the environment. Bronfenbrenner believed that an individual’s development was greatly affected by his or her immediate environment (Berndt, 2002). As a result, person’s environment was divided into five distinct levels which include Microsystems, Macrosystems, Mesosystems, Exosystems and Cronosystem. The Microsystems is very close to the person and in most cases, the person will tend to have a direct contact with the environment. The mesosystem consists of the interrelationship which takes place between the microsystems of an individual. In the exosystem, the individual is not an active participant. However, he or she is largely influenced by the environment. The macrosysem consists of the cultural environment as well as all other systems within which an individual lives in. The cronosystem is the fifth level in the ecological system. The microsystem will have the greatest influence on a person’s behavior. For instance, in a school setting, one’s closest friends will form the micro environment (Berndt & Murphy, 2002). The peers and friends will greatly influence how a student adjusted to the school program and environment. Such groups will also greatly influence ones behaviors in schools. However, it is also worth noting that all other levels may affect the students significantly. For instance, Alvin’s behavior was significantly influenced by the ‘Paikias’ although he was not a member of the group.
2.2 Negative Peer Influence
A very dominant theme in literature, especially concerning adolescent students, is that they are in most cases influenced negatively by their friends and peers. Certainly, some students are negatively influenced by their peers. For example, one may have friends who smoke cigarettes and pass the cigarettes to their non-smoking friends (Larson & Verma, 1999). In a school setting, peers may motivate their friends to undertake behaviors that may negatively affect their behaviors and their studies. For instance, Alvin was forced to smoke cigarettes by the ‘Paikias’. In most cases, the innocent students may end up copying the behaviors of their peers as a way of trying to conform to their norms so as to maintain their relationships. Additionally, they may also do this as a result of being ridiculed by their friends as it happened in the case of Alvin.
2.3 Positive peer influence
Many students have tended to concentrate on the negative influences of peers. However, peers do not always affect each other negatively. For instance, peers may offer academic support to their friends. By forming friendships in schools, students may be motivated to go to school just to check on their friends. It was really lacking in the case of Hong Kong primary and secondary schools where students felt no need to attend school as they felt lonely in school due to lack of friends. Alvin had no fiends and never knew how to make friendships. The impact of this was that he was often unwilling to attend school. Peers and friends may also offer motivation while studying. For instance, an academically lazy student might be challenged by his hardworking peers to read and work harder in his studies (Berndt, 2002). It may in turn affect his school adjustments positively. Friends also offer support during group workings such as study groups where the students encourage each other on issues touching on education. Such peer motivation is very instrumental in helping students adjust to the school programs.
2.4 Implications for Interventions
Intervention programs for dealing with such cases should focus on two major areas; the individual students and the school in general. Individually, students should understand the importance of building positive and healthy friendships. For instance, Alvin ought to understand that forming health friendships is very beneficial in helping students in adjusting to school life as well as motivating them academically. Additionally, these students should learn how to form healthy social relationships. On the other hand, schools such as Hong Kong should understand the role played by the student’s immediate environment in shaping students behaviors and school adjustments. As such, schools should be committed to providing the best kind of environment to their students. They should provide a conducive environment which offer support to their students; emotional and academic support. This is very instrumental in motivating their students.
3.0 Intervention Plan
3.1 Recruitment of Members
The aim of this is to recruit members and let them engage intrinsically in the intervention programs. Participation is very critical in any learning process. Allowing members to participate in the intervention programs plays a very important role in ensuring that these members learn of the ways they can use to deal with the issue of peer pressure while harnessing the benefits of the friendships formed. Ideally, these members should engage in the intervention programs fully. The members of the intervention program should include students who are new to the school, students who want to make friends, students whose friends are absent, those who want to play something different from what their friends are playing or those who have problems with their fiends. Such categories of students are very vulnerable to activities that may affect their behaviors significantly. For instance, the new students may not know what is wrong and what is right in the school setting (Lubbers et al., 2006). As result, the students might be influenced greatly by their peers. Often, the new students are usually willing to learn new things and new ideas. The kind of friends they make in their first days will definitely affect the way they adjust to the school life. The activities undertaken by these students in the result of their school life will also be influenced greatly by the kind of friends and peers they form. The students in need of friends are also ideal in this program. Such students may feel lonely if left on their own. For instance, if such students are not assisted in forming healthy relationships, they may end up lacking any motivation to attend schools. Additionally, they may engage in other harmful behaviors such as drugs as a way of helping them deal with their psychological stress.
3.2 Content programs
The content programs take two major forms; workshops and programs. These programs will be geared towards helping students form healthy friendships.
3.2.1 Workshop ‘Make Your Friendship Soup’
The workshop will be branded the name ‘Make Your Friendship Soup’. It is a class based workshop and which will involve all students. Ideally, all students will have to attend a lesson on how to make their own friendship soup at every Wednesday. The educators will access a wide range of resources such as lesson plans, classroom activities and ideas which will be helpful in imparting friendship forming skills top these students (Özer & Saçkes, 2011). The class room setting is very instrumental in capturing the minds of the students and developing sense of the weight of the matter. At the start of the program students will be lectured on what makes a good friendship. Additionally, they will also be taught about the kind of features and characteristics that a good friendship should display (Lubbers et al., 2006). At this point, the students will be expected to have a full understanding of what entails a good friendships and which will be an important step in ensuring that the students understand the role of good friendships in their studies as well as their role in helping them adjust to school programs. By understanding this, the students will be in a better position to form good friendships and which are both academically and emotionally beneficial. At this point, the students will also be trained on the way of detecting bad friendships. The ways of avoiding wrong friendships and negative peer influences will be expounded.
After this, the students will then be divided into groups of four or five students. Each group will then be required to make a friendship ‘soup’ where they will be expected to add characteristics of friends. At this point, the students will identify their friends as well as the characteristics of these friends. All these characteristics will be placed in a pool to make the friendship soup. All these characteristics will help the students to identify the common areas which require emphasis with regard to good and bad relationships (Özer & Saçkes, 2011). After this, the students will then be expected to make presentations on their friendship soups. Such presentations will address different issues concerning their friendship soup. For instance, the students will have to answer questions such as why and how questions touching on their friendship ships. For example, some of the questions which will have to be explained on this point include; why a student has chosen to trust his or her friendship soup. This will be a very critical point in evaluating the perception and the understanding of the students on the importance of forming healthy friendships. Additionally, this stage will also be vital in evaluating the understanding of the students’ perception on what entails a good and a bad. During their presentation, the student in the various groups will also be expected to answer question such as how they can deal with their friends who are prone to taking risk behaviors. If friends engage in risky behaviors, it is likely that the group will be affected negatively as a result of peer pressure. By answering this question, it will be easier to gauge their understanding in how to avoid and control peer pressures from their friends.
3.2.2 Program “Take a Seat, Make a Friend”
Upon the completion of the workshop ‘Make Your Friendship Soup’, the students will now be in a better position to make their own friends at school. Although the buddy bench sounds as a very simple idea, it is a very powerful in helping students eliminates loneliness in school. The buddy bench is very useful in helping the students to foster relationships in the playing ground. The basic idea behind this idea is that a socialization bench will be set up where students can meet and make friends (Wentzel, 1998). At any given time when a student feels lonely, he or she will have an opportunity to socialize in the buddy bench. This will also ensure that the students do not get a chance of involving themselves in activities which may impair their behaviors as well as impacting their studies negatively.
Supportive peer relationships in schools usually promote the internalization of values, belongings, feeling of affective ties and relatedness in students. Additionally, such relationships usually enhance the overall wellbeing of all involved students (Lubbers et al., 2006). All these play a very important role in supporting the socialization dimension of school friendships. In schools, relationships with friends and classmates are very important and form a very essential ingredient in the learning process. These relationships also shape the learning environment of these children. Additional, the extent to which peers form relationships in schools will greatly influence the relatedness and belongingness of the children in schools. Support obtained from friends and classmates is very imprint in promoting the feeling of belongings and school motivation. On the other hand, if this support is lacking, children may develop drop out intentions and feeling of loneliness (Studsrød & Bru, 2011). For instance, this was lacking in Hong Kong primary and secondary school and which in turn made the students feel lonely. Ideally, how students perceive their classmates to be supporting them will determine the extent to which these students will adjust top school programs.
3.3 Expectations
In schools, students deserve to be happy. They should not feel that the school is an added burden but rather they should have a feeling that school is a good place where they can socialize while gaining knowledge. The above two programs can play a very imprint role in fostering happiness in schools. For instance, they will help the students understand how to create healthy friendships and the importance of such friendships. At the same time, they will learn on how to seek help, how to say no to behaviors which may affect their behaviors and studies negatively and how to care and respect their colleagues and live in harmony in their school. The programs are very critical in ensuring that the students succeed academically by forming positive and beneficial friendships with their peers, teacher student relationships and school-student bonding. The students should be engaged fully bin the intervention programs so as to achieve the best results.
At the school level, schools should be committed to providing support to their students by providing a conducive environment where students can form healthy friendships with their peers. This will be very important in helping the students achieve academic success. The school should provide an opportunity for the students to develop holistic skills and which is very important in building the reputation of the school as well as creating a sustainable development.
4.0 Conclusion
Positive school adjustments is linked to a couple factors such as being well accepted by one’s friends and peers, having close friends, developing friendships characterized by high levels of positive qualities as well as belonging or even participating in peer groups or friendships with other students who have adjusted well academically. Supportive peer relationships in schools usually promote the internalization of values, belongings, feeling of affective ties and relatedness in students. Intervention programs should seek to form supportive relationships with teachers, parents and peers. Examples of interventions programs which can be used to deal with the problem as the one witnessed in the case of Hong Kong include recruitment of members and the use of content programs.
References
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