International Journal of Social Science Research (IJSSR)

Do Gender and Residential Status Really Matter? A Study of Peer Pressure, Emotional Maturity and Interpersonal Support among University Students

The present study investigated the relationship between peer pressure, emotional maturity and interpersonal support, and the differences between male and female students and between those living in the city and those living in the countryside in the university. It is important to be aware of these psychosocial factors because peer pressure can affect the emotional development of students and their interpersonal relationships. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 100 students from the university aged 18-25 years, of which 50 were males and 50 were females. The Peer Pressure Scale Questionnaire – Revised (PPSQ-R), Emotional Maturity Scale (EMS), and Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) were used for data collection. Pearson's product-moment correlation and independent-samples t-tests were conducted to analyse the data. The results indicated that there was a weak positive correlation between peer pressure and emotional maturity (r = .219, p = .029). No significant relationships were found between peer pressure and interpersonal support (r = –.152, p = .132) or emotional maturity and interpersonal support (r = –.194, p = .053). In addition, there were no statistically significant gender differences in peer pressure (t = 1.849, p = .067), emotional maturity (t = 0.224, p = .824), or interpersonal support (t = 0.404, p = .687). The results indicate that there is a slight correlation between higher peer pressure and slightly higher emotional maturity among the university students, but there is no significant difference between the peer pressure, emotional maturity and interpersonal support of the two genders.