VISIÓN DE CONJUNTO Y ASPECTOS CRONOLÓGICOS

Research also indicates the significant impact of peers and friends on young people’s educational and career choices. When making higher education choices, friends and peers play a crucial role in informing young people their own academic standing within the ranking of friendship groups, which then can help them make judgements and decisions about which higher education institutions and courses are ‘feasible’ within the HE hierarchies (Brooks, 2003, 2004). Although families as well as educational institutions also provide information to inform students their academic ability and standing, in some cases students’ academic positions are more strongly influenced by comparing and ranking between friends; and for some individuals, friends are of particular importance in constructing a sense of identity and bringing some level of confidence, which then has a strong bearing on decisions these young people make for their higher education (Brooks, 2003).

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Friendships are also social resources for adolescents as the attitudes and behaviours of friends can positively influence adolescents’ academic outcomes (Crosnoe, Cavanagh, & Elder Jr, 2003). This is because adolescent friendships serve as sources of social capital, especially academically oriented friendships. By forming a friendship with academically oriented peers, a student is then able to access to various forms of resources provided by this friendship, for example, friends’ knowledge and skills that can help solve problems related to academic subjects, friends’ emotional support that help tackle difficulties and challenges, friends’ social support as well as modelling of behaviours, and friends’ introduction to a larger academically oriented social network. All these resources not only can promote adolescents’ academic achievement but also can encourage their school engagement, help them navigate the schooling process, and raise their awareness of valuing education in their life (Crosnoe et al., 2003). For students with a lower socio-economic status from more disadvantaged schools characterized by low overall student achievement and less positive school ethos, the academic importance of friends is more evident. This is because amid the dearth of resources in their disadvantaged school environments, academically oriented peers serve as their main academic resource and are the social capital that protects some of them from disengaging and losing their way (Crosnoe et al., 2003). The importance of peer groups is alsoidentified by studies that investigate into the impact of peer groups on students’ post-16 educational choices. For example, Thomas and Webber (2001) suggests that peer groups have a strong and significant effect on whether boys intend to continue on to post-compulsory education at the age of 16. The study found that boys are much more inclined to remain in education if they are amongst peers whose intention is to stay on. Thomas and Webber (2009) also identified the important role peer groups played in shaping students’ decisions at the age of 16 about whether or not to participate in post-compulsory education. The study showed

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evidence that boys are far more influenced by their peer groups than girls and if a male student is surrounded by peers who are academically able and intend to stay on in post- compulsory education, then this male student will very likely be encouraged to also want to stay on. Naz et al. (2014) also indicate that the positive influence of peer and friends is significant on various aspects of young people’s academic choices including the selection of subjects, the selection of learning resources, and the selection of co-curricular activities as well as time provision for homework. Moreover, the study also shows that friends and peer are pivotal in young people’s career decision making process as career decision making, the selection of job and professional career, employment opportunities and earning tendencies are all mostly decided and influenced by peer and friends.

Beyond the primary and secondary educational stages, friends and peers continue to play a crucial role in young people’s lives when they have moved into university. Brooks’ study (2007) demonstrates that university friendships which are perceived by young people to be closer and more mature have had specific benefits for them as this new form of friendship provides emotional support and stimulates social learning. This is because friends at university offer sympathy, understanding and encouragement and it is this kind of emotional support that enables many students to persevere with their studies until competing their degree, especially in the face of difficulty and stress; in the meantime, friends at university also help to boost young people’s self-confidence and self-reliance as a result of living away from home and immersing in a multi-cultural social context where they have the opportunity to learn not only more about themselves but also other cultures and various worldviews.

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In addition, Bandura (1994) also highlights the importance of peer influences in the development of children’s self-efficacy. This is because children judge and verify their self- efficacy by comparing themselves to their peers, and as they gradually entering into larger communities, they broaden self-knowledge of their capabilities among peers and learn efficacious thinking and behaviour from peer models who are most capable and experienced. However, as peers are selected discriminately by children based on shared interests and values, selective peer relationships can limit the development of personal efficacy to directions that are only of mutual interest thus will greatly hinder a child’s other potentialities. Moreover, the growth of children’s personal efficacy can be adversely affected if the peer association they connect with is less well functioned (Bandura, 1994).