Perception of IIUM Students of Social Problems that Affect Their Academic Performance

PERCEPTION OF IIUM STUDENTS OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS 1

Running head: PERCEPTION OF IIUM STUDENTS OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS THAT AFFECT THEIR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE.

Perception of IIUM Students of Social Problems that AffectTheir Academic Performance

Junaidi Mohamad

Hafizah Mohd Kamaruzaman

Siti Noor Aziyah Ibrahim

International Islamic University Malaysia


Correspondence concerning this assignment should be addressed to Hafizah binti Mohd Kamaruzaman. Kuliyyah of Islamic RevealedKnowledge and Human Sciences (KIRKHS), Department of Psychology, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). Email: [email protected]

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to study the perception of

students of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) of social

problems that could affect their academic performance. The objectives

of this study is to identify social problems among students in

International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Gombak, Kuala Lumpur

and to investigate whether the students of International Islamic University

Malaysia agree on academic performance might affect by social problems.

This study used quantitative methodological approach and questionnaire

was used as the instrument. Twenty-five respondents participated in this

study. The result showed that among four social problems in the

questionnaire, alcohol and drug use are most problems that could affect

academic performance as perceived by both gender of International

Islamic University Malaysia students. Meanwhile, most of the students

thought that social problems might be causes that affect their studies. The

possible implication of these findings is that students will be more aware

on social problems that happen around them. A number of limitations

were experienced while conducting this survey such as the students

answered the questionnaire without read it. Future researchers are advised

to increase the number of respondents and mix with the various kinds of

people which do not have to be only students. Besides, they should

mailto:[email protected]


provide the multi-lingual questionnaires in order for the respondents to

easily understand the questions.

Keywords: Social Problems, Academic Performance

Every student want to have a good grades in their academic

performance whether in school or university. A good grade usually will

make them feel more comfortable especially when it comes to

appreciation by their school or university. According to Akey (2006),

extensive evidence exists that engagement and motivation are critical“elements in student success and learning . Motivation is the crucial things”in students life because by being motivated, they compete with their

friends in order to get a good grade and try their best to avoid any

negative behavior that could affecttheir grades. Again, according to Akey

(2006), students beliefs about their competenceand their expectations for“success in school have been directly linked to their levels of engagement,

as well as to emotional states that promote or interfere with their ablity

to be academically successful .”

In this study, there are two variables which are social problems as

an independent variableand academic performance as a dependent

variable. Social problems have been defined by Alessio (2011) as a

situation that engaged harm to one or more individuals and/or one or

more social entities, has at least on the social cause and/or at least one

social consequences, and effectively has one or more social treatment.


Meanwhile, Bolt (2011) has defined an academic performance as a

progress made towards the goal of achieving educational skills, materials

and information, usually spanning a discrepancy of disciplines.

Although they are struggling in competing with their friends to get

a good grades, they somehow has been exposed to many social problems

that happens in their environment. It has been reported that

recently,social problem has become a trend in students life. This could

bring a bad phenomenal towards their academic performance in education

instituition. This was supported by Azizi et al. (2009) where they have

believedthat students improper acting is a predominant problem affecting

schools not only in Asia for example Malaysia but also across the many

territory around the whole world. Besides, social problems could also

bring a depression to the students. According to Field, Diego, Pelaez,

Deeds and Delgado (2012), they have stated that among the

majorityusually reported problems related to depression are anxiety,

disturbingthoughts, curbing disturbing thoughts and sleep distorders.

However, academic performance will be affected if the students keep and

stay maintainig their social problems behaviour in their life. According to

Azizi, et al. (2009), bad behaviour from the students might bring affection

to their studies. One of the social problems that very could lead to worst

academic performance is abortion in which according to Azizi and Asiah

(n.d), abortion problems is about 400,000 cases every year.

In this study, theory that relevant to this study is Marxist Conflict

Theory which has been developed by Karl Marx. According to Mooney,

Knox and Schacht (2000), Marxist Conflict Theory brings a definition of;

Social problems result from class inequality inherent in a capitalisticsystem. A system of haves and have-nots may be beneficial to“ ” “ ”the haves but often translate into poverty for the have-nots .“ ” “ ”Many social problems, including physical and mental illness, loweducational achievement, and crime are linked to poverty (pp. 10-16).


Even though in this theory it is mentioned about poverty, it is actually

one of the causes of social problems. Poverty could be a factor to social

problems that students recently faced. The theory is relevant because it is

showed that social problems could affect the educational achievement in

academic settings.

Several literatures have discussed about the variety of social

problems among students such as discipline problem, alcohol and drug

used, the relationship things between dating, love and social anxiety and

also smoking behavior among students. According to Borders, Xu, Bacchi,

Cohen and Miner (2005), in their study it has been showed that effect of

the smoking policies and programs on the probability of smoking to the

students which organised by the university has controlled the students

characteristics. Here it could be seen that smoking can curb students

characteristics or even their behavior. According to Azizi et al. (2009),

usually discipline issues or problems happens when a students refuses

and dislike to obey rules of the classroom or even school. In addition,

according to Alden et al. (as cited in Azizi & Asiah, n.d), it has been

reported that adolescents who get attention and love from their parents

usually got excellent in their academic performance, make friends with

same gender and late engaging with a close or even love relationship.

From Alden et al. views, it could be say that students without parents

attention and love, it might affect their academic achievement and also

might lead to social problems.

Moreover, there are also another literatures that discussed about the

social problems might be a cause that affect academic performance.

According to Barnot (2005), declining in academic performance were most

highly associated with health risk behaviour. Poor academic achievement

was found to be associated among the adolescents with the overall


increased health risk behaviour (Bailey & Hubbard; Kann et al., as cited

in Barnot, 2005). On the other hand, Lind (2006) have stated that there

are several research that students in poverty score lower on standard test

than who living in the upper classes. Poverty is also one of the social

problems that could affect students academic achievement. According to

McLanahan and Sandefur (as cited in White, 2004), they believed that

economic poverty was the biggest important reason when analyzing the

low academic performance of students from single-mother homes. Besides,

according to Azizi (n.d) the factors that influence educational success is

the students friends itself. This is referring to the role of the peers where

students who spend a lot of unproductive time with friends tend to have“lower achievement levels than those who spend less time hanging out

with peers (Azizi, n.d). ”

Nevertheless, most of the studies in the literature review have

discussed the variety of social problems that could affect academic

performance and also about the factors that contribute to an excellent

academic performances but none of them had discussed about the

perception by the students about this issue which might make them

aware on this phenomenal of social problems that happenned around

them. Therefore, the aim of this study is to study the perception of

students of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) of social

problems that could affect their academic performance. The following

objectives have been formulated for this study;

i - To identify social problems among students in International

Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Gombak, Kuala Lumpur.

ii - To investigate whether the students of International Islamic

University Malaysia agree on academic performance might affect by

the social problems.


Method

Participants

The participants consist of both genders from International Islamic

University Malaysia (IIUM). The studies compromised of 13 men and 12

women. They are from 1st year students until 4th year students in different

background of courses in university. Total numbers of participants are 30

people and range of their age is around 20-25 years old. In this study, the

design used is quantitative which employs descriptive research design. In

this study, the sampling method used is random in which that the

participants was selected randomly because it is easier for the researcher

to see the different answers between all students that involved.The


independent variable in this study is social problems and dependent

variable is academic performance.

Materials

This research is quantitative methodology approach. The materials

that the researchers used in this study are a set of questionnaire which

consists of fifteen questions. In this study, the type of questions in the

questionnaire are close-ended and Likert scale style. These materials will

be functioning as a medium for the researchers to conduct this study. In

addition, these questions were adapted from Frizzell (1995) and Butler

(2000). The questionnaire with title Perception of IIUM Students of Social

Problems that Affect their Academic Performance consisted of various

types of questions such as multiple choice, yes or no, and 5 point scale

of measurement of strongly agree , agree , neutral , disagree and‘ ’ ‘ ’ ‘ ’ ‘ ’strongly disagree . Close-ended questions were used in this research to‘ ’

ease the process of collecting and analyzing data.

Procedure

The researchers conducted the study in International Islamic

University Malaysia. The questionnaire was distributed by online through

IIUM students Facebook accounts. This method used in order for the

researchers to easily get the responses in a speed way in which they do

not need to collect the survey hand by hand if they distributed in an

offline way. Informed consent was sought to all the participants before

the researchers distributed the survey. This instrument was scored using

Microsoft Excel software and was analyzed by using simple frequency


counts. The findings were interpreted in the form of bar chart in order to

enable quick interpretation of the data in this research.

Findings

In this study, research question one is what are the variety of social

problems that affect academic performance as perceived by students of

International Islamic University Malaysia.


Love Relationship

Alcohol & Drug Use

Discipline Problem

Smoking0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

MaleFemale

Figure 1: Bar graph of type of social problems that can affect academic performance.

Figure 1 shows that among four social problems in the

questionnaire, alcohol and drug use are most problems that could affect

academic performance as perceived by both gender of International

Islamic University Malaysia students. From 13 men, 7 of them chose

alcohol and drug use. Same goes to women in which from 12 people, 5

of them chose alcohol and drug use compared to love relationship,

discipline problem and smoking. In this bar graph, smoking is the least

social problems that could affect academic performance whereby love

relationship is the second least and discipline problem is the third least

social problem that could affect academic performance as perceived by

IIUM students.

The second research question is are the students of International

Islamic University Malaysia agree on academic performance might affect

by the social problems.


Yes No0

2

4

6

8

10

12

MaleFemale

Figure 2: Bar graph of perception by IIUM students on social problems might be a cause that affect studies.

Figure 4 shows that most of the students thought that social

problems might be a cause that affect their studies meanwhile only 2

men said no as perceived by IIUM students. Based on these results, it

showed that social problems obviously will affect academic performance

of the students and if it does not control properly, students might get in

trouble in facing their academic achievement.

Hence, with the results given by the respondents, it is clear that

social problems could affect academic performance as perceived by IIUM

students.

Discussion

In summary, this study was conducted to examine the perceptions

of students from IIUM of social problems that could affect academic


performance. The objectives of this research were to investigate the

variety of social problem among IIUM students and to investigate whether

the students of IIUM agree on academic performance might affect by the

social problems. Therefore, the major social problem and their perception

towards social problems that can affect their study were sought. This

study is a quantitative methodological study with the instrument being a

questionnaire. Fifteen questionnaires were distributed to 25 students

among IIUM students. The results of the finding were illustrated by using

bar graph reflecting the four major of social problems that is love

relationship, alcohol and drug use, discipline problems and smoking.

Besides that, the perception of IIUM students was portrayed in a form of

bar graph which indicated yes and no.

Based on research question 1, it has been found that alcohol and

drug use the main reason of social problem in university. This finding is

similar to the result of study conducted by previous study which indicated

that among college students, problem-drinking behavior lead to academic

difficulties which include low academic achievement and assessed to

lower course grade and spending few hours studying (Wolaver; Wood,

Sher & McGowan, Smith, Collins, Kreisberg, Volpicelli & Alterman;

Hanson & Engs; Friedman, Glickman & Utada; Wechsler & McFadden, as

cited in Barnot, 2005). According to Barnot (2005) most young adults in

the United States who involved in to tobacco use, alcohol and other drug

use might faces many problem their study. Alcohol and drug use can

seriously affect academic performance and cause grades to plummet. This

is because some college students believe that alcohol and drug use offers

a way to escape from school or work related stress, financial worries or

relationship problems. This explanation were supported with finding by

National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (2000) which shows that about

30 percent of youths getting a D or less than D aged 12 to 17 enrolled in


school during the past year reporting past month substance use, by

average letter grade for the last semester or grading period completed in

2000.

Based on research question 2, it was found that most students in

International Islamic University Malaysia agreed on academic performance

affect by social problems. The results of this research can be explained in

many ways. Based on the finding from the bar graph, the results revealed

that most of the respondents agreed that their academic performance can

be affected when they were involved in the social problem. According to

Haveman et al. (as cited in Lind, 2006), student born to unmarried

teenage mother have a potentially higher risk for getting poor health and

less potential for school achievement.

The finding of this study revealed that alcohol and drug use were

the main reason of social problem affect academic performance compared

to love relationship, smoking and others. Nevertheless, the result might be

different if this study is conducted in any other universities. Therefore,

alcohol and drug use cannot be the basis argumentation of social problem

affect academic performance. This is because other problem can be the

major reason of poor academic performance such as health problem and

pregnancy in early marriage. Meanwhile, the second finding indicated that

social problem affect academic performance among IIUM students. There

is no doubt that students will face problem in their academic learning

when they involved in any social problems.

Several inferences can be made from the finding of this study

showed that the alcohol and drug use is the main reason in the social

problems that affect student s academic performance. This was expected’finding because alcohol and drug use damages areas of the brain

responsible for learning and memory, verbal skills and visual-spatial


cognition. So, students might skip many classes and they will be left

behind from study. The second finding showed that social problem give

bad effect on academic performance among IIUM students. It is

foreseeable because social problem had become a major problem that

involved society nowadays. Social problems also will affect a person s’career in the future.

From research question one, it has been found that social problems

that could affect academic performance usually from consuming the

alcohol and drug. One implication of this finding is that if the solution is

not taken by responsible authority, then the problem might become worst

in the future. Besides, there is a tendency for students to involve in

crime when they are under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Substance

abuse-free campuses should be the rule not the exception to non-muslim.

It can be done if college and goverment limit the number of bars and

retail liquor store surrounding their campus to avoid students from get

access easily to alcoholic drink and drug substances.

Furthermore, it has been found that students of IIUM agreed that

social problems might be a cause that affect their performance in

academic. Thus, an implications for this finding is that students will

aware of the social problems that occur around them. Therefore, the

administrator of the campus should monitor the students who had social

problem. This can be implement by have efficient programs with

problematic students so they can be exposed about social problems in

nowadays and giving them a chance to join with the society.

The findings of this study have several limitations. Some of the

respondents does not answered the questionnaire properly in which they

missed a few questions. Some respondents also randomly answer the

questionnaire without giving real answer and thus, the result does not


valid anymore. Besides, some of the respondents did not response to the

questionnaire in which the researchers have to remind them to response

to the questions.

In the future, it is possible for the researchers who are interested

to conduct a similar study to increase the number of respondents so we

can collect more result from people. Other than that, future researcher

should widen their research to other people in different background to

create more awareness towards this social problems. It would be more

reliable if the research conduct in multi-lingual questionnaire so that

respondents can easily understand the questionnaire based on their

understanding. In addition, future researcher also can make a survey on

various type of respondent without looking any level of education.


References

Akey, T. M., (2006). School context, student attitudes and behavior, and academic

achievement: An Exploratory analysis. MDRC Publisher

Alessio, J. C. (2011). Social Problems and Inequality. Social Responsibility

through Progressive Sociology. Minnesota State University, Mankato, USA:

Ashgate.

Azizi, Y. & Asiah, S. (n.d). The relationship between dating, love and social

anxiety problems

among the secondary school students.

Azizi, Y., Jamaluddin, R., Shahrin, H., Mohd.Ali, I., Raja Roslan, R. A. R.

& Noordin, Y.

(2009). Discipline problems among secondary school students in

Johor Bharu. European Journal of Social Science, 11, 4.

Barnot, V. (2005). Association of Health Risk Behaviours and Academic

Achievement among

College Freshmen.University of Pittsburgh

http://www.bibme.org/book




Bolt, J. (2011). Academic Achievement . In Encyclopedia of Child Behavior

and

Development (pp.8-9) USA : Springer Link.

Borders. T. F., Xu, K. T., Bacchi, D., Cohen, L., & Miner, D. S. (2005).

College campus

smoking policies and programs and students’ smoking behaviours. Texas:

BMC Public Health

Field, T., Diego, M., Pelaez, M., Deeds, O. & Delgado, J. (2012).

Depression and related

problems in university students. College Student Journal:46(1), p.193

Lind, B. M., (2006). The Effects of Poverty on K-12 Students and the Correlation to

their

Academic Achievement. University of Winsconsin-Stout

Mooney, L. A, Knox, D. & Schacht, C. (2002). Understanding social

problems (2nd ed.).

Cincinnati, OH : Wadsworth.

National Household Survey on Drug Abuse Report. (2002). Academic

Performance and

Youth Substance Abuse. Retrieved from

http://www.samhsa.gov/data/2k2/academics/academics.htm

http://www.samhsa.gov/data/2k2/academics/academics.htm


White, L. B., (2004). The Psychological Well-Being and Academic Achievement of

Children

Raised by Single Parents.

Appendices

Perception of IIUM Students of Social Problems That Affect Their Academic Performance.Assalamualaikum wbt. We are from the English for Academic Writing (LE 4000- EAW) students. We need your help to answer the survey for our assignments onperception of IIUM students of social problems that affect their academic performance. Thank you for your participation and we are really appreciate it. Have a barakah Ramadan and happy fasting!

Gender

o Male

o Female

Course


Year

o 1st

o 2nd

o 3rd

o 4th

o Others

Do you think that social problems might brings a bad looks to the society?

1 2 3 4 5

StronglyAgree

Strongly Disagree

Is alcohol associated with family violence?

1 2 3 4 5

StronglyAgree

Strongly Disagree

My family members expect me to perform well in studies without being involved in any social problems.

1 2 3 4 5

StronglyAgree

Strongly Disagree

Do you believe that smoking can affect your academic performance?

1 2 3 4 5

StronglyAgree

Strongly Disagree

The best method to solve social problems is strong and supportive leadership among teachers. Do you agree?

1 2 3 4 5

StronglyAgree

Strongly Disagree

Do you agree on consistently monitoring student progress in their institutions?

1 2 3 4 5

StronglyAgree

Strongly Disagree


Do you think crimes can affect academic performance?

1 2 3 4 5

StronglyAgree

Strongly Disagree

Are authorities in your community being helpful in solving this problem?

1 2 3 4 5

StronglyAgree

What kind of social problems can affect your academic performance?

o Love Relationship

o Alcohol & Drugs Use

o Discipline Problem

o Smoking

o Other:

Why do you think teenagers use violence?

o To get attention

o Lack of love from parents

o To show powerful

o Other:

Have you ever witnessed violence on your campus?

o Yes

o No

Are you a smoker?

o Yes

o No

Social problems might be a cause that affects my studies.

o Yes

o No


Do you think social problems can affect your personal life?

o Yes

o No

Do you think that disrespectful behavior towards parents should be considered as a major social problem?

o Yes

o No

Related chart


Strongly Agree

Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

MaleFemale

Figure 3: Bar graph of crime can affect academic performance.

Figure 3 shows the perception of IIUM students on are crimes can affect

academic performance. From the graph, 9 from 13 men chose strongly agree‘ ’that crime can affect academic performance meanwhile only 4 from 12 women

chose that. 2 men and 4 women chose agree , 1 man and 2 women chose‘ ’neutral , 1 man and 1 women chose disagree and 1 women chose strongly‘ ’ ‘ ’ ‘

disagree . This result means majority of men strongly agree that crimes can’affect academic performance and so do the women as perceived by IIUM

students.

Perception of IIUM Students of Social Problems that Affect Their Academic Performance

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