Peer Group Influence, Teacher-Student Interaction, and Indiscipline as Predictors of Students' Dropout Tendency in an Evening Continuing Education Programme

The aim of this study was to investigate the predictive relationship of peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and indiscipline to students' dropout tendency in evening continuing education programmes. The context of this study is the southern senatorial district of Cross River State, Nigeria. The study adopted a predictive correlational research design

School dropout implies a situation where individuals continually stay away from school and eventually withdraw from the school programme without completing the course of study (Akpama & Omori, 2012). According to Uche (2013), the evening continuing education programme in Nigeria is established by private individuals, corporate bodies, and government agencies. The Agency manages it for Adult and Non-Formal Education to prepare individuals who could not acquire formal education and certificates. It is a programme that caters for all -the youths, adults, skilled and unskilled workers, farmers, educationally disadvantaged, retarded or talented, nomadic and tiers young children, allowing them to overcome some forms of educational backwardness or compensate for earlier learning inadequacy (Egunyomi, 2009). Onyenemezu (2013) opined that it is not only an education about literacy to fill the gap. Instead, it is needed and required by all, regardless of previous education, as it prepares individuals for change and enriches their power of thinking to achieve self-reliance. It creates a dynamic frame of mind in the inexperienced person, thinking that the world is constantly converting in all spheres ranging from technology, science, conversation and enterprise. Beshel et al. (2016) pointed out that these individuals are trained based on the secondary school curriculum for a basic, post-basic, vocational and technical literacy from which they are enrolled for the Senior Secondary Education Certificate Examination (SSCE), or West Africa Examination Certificate (WAEC). Most times, the number of individuals who enrol for the programme begins to decline, and upon completion, about one-third of the enrolled population could complete the programme. A critical examination of the enrolment statistics in the evening continuing education programme in Cross River State from 2012 to 2016 reveals a continuous rise in the dropout rate representing 53%. Statistics showed that in 2012, 2,850 students dropped out before the next academic session from a total enrolment of 6,284. Similarly, from the total enrolment of 7,358 in the 2013 academic session, 3,969 dropped out of the programme. The situation was not different in 2014, as 4,204 dropped out of the programme out of the total enrolment of 8,321 students. 2015 had an enrolment of 8,459, from which 4,930 dropped out, while 2016, whose enrolment was 9,180, had 4,970 students drop-out rates, as obtained from the Agency for Adult and Non-formal education (2017) report.
Despite efforts made by the government through enlightenment programmes on the danger of dropping out from the evening continuing education programme, monitoring and supervision of evening continuing education centres, free registration of Senior Secondary School three (SSS 3) students for West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination, employment of qualified instructors and prompt remunerations for organisers of the evening centres, students still drop from the evening continuing education programme they had enrolled for. The dropout rate may appear small, but it is a proponent among the poor who turn the wheel of intergenerational transmission of poverty against themselves. Mass drop-out from the evening continuing programme sometimes denies individuals the opportunity of meaningful participation in societal development as they do not have other education possibilities essential for potential skill and intellectual development and increased social vices in the country.
Consequently, the question is why are many students who enrolled in the evening continuing education programme not reaching completion? Why do they promote the wastage of assets by the government and their sponsors? The researchers think that one of such reasons for dropout in the programme could be socially influenced, which according to Nwankwo (2016), are those factors that exist because of interactions among persons within the society which can hinder an individual from completing the studies which they initially enrolled for. The current study was, therefore, designed to assess the composite and partial predictive relationship of social factors such as peer influence, teacher-students interaction and indiscipline to students' dropout tendency in an evening programme.
Peers play a crucial role in teens' school performance and adulthood fulfilment. It is correctly diagnosed that the extent to which a teenager succeeds in meeting the school's expectations has a vital and direct bearing on his reputation within the peer group (Carter & McGoldrick, 2015). Ideally, peer pressure from good-minded persons positively affects the students. An environment with indifference, lack of expertise, social discord, and improper family care and guidance permits deviant behaviour in some kids. This makes students develop as unwell-trained individuals, socially maladjusted or mess around the minded person and uncaring to a quantity. The peer group of youth constitutes an international of its own with its customs, traditions, manners, and even its language. Peers can exert stress, significantly affecting students' educational aspirations and attitudes toward schools (Gara & Davis, 2016). Peer group influence students, which is a type of social pressure on them to adopt a type of behaviour, dress, or attitude to be able to be ordinary as part of a set, influencing them both undoubtedly or negatively, as the case can be. for others to emulate or negatively as they paint social vices like immoral behaviour, gangsterism and cultism (Andrews et al., 2020;Castillo, 2010;Weinstein, 2018). In the early stages, youths try to establish their independence from their parents to new existence patterns, an increase of unruly individuals epitomised by drug dependency, alcoholism, wild cat, and carefree sex behaviours (Aduma et al., 2022;Akah et al., 2022). Previous research has assessed peer influence on variables such as academic performance (Abdulrahman, 2020;Afolabi, 2019;Sarkar et al., 2022), school library use (Olaleru & Owolabi, 2021), substance use (Muhia, 2021;Olaniyi & Jimoh, 2021), bullying trends (Doehne et al., 2018;Ngelu & Wambua, 2020), truancy (Obiunu & Ozuri, 2018) and teenage pregnancy (Kukundakwe, 2021) among students. Nevertheless, much research has not been paid to peer influence on students' dropout tendencies, a gap addressed by the present study.
Studies on teacher-student interaction have received considerable attention in the language literature. For example, previous language studies have associated teacher-students interaction with English teaching and learning (Arofah & Mubarok, 2021;Eisenring & Margana, 2019;Nernere, 2019). However, studies on teacher-student interaction appear relatively scarce in the education literature, creating a gap that requires filling. This is because instructors make limitless actual-time selections and facilitate dozens of interactions among themselves and their students, to create a bond that could positively influence the students. The significance of the student-teacher relation for overcoming troubles of school failure has been especially highlighted within the literature. The study by Woolley et al. (2009), which stresses the academic relationship between learner and teacher, found that teachers help mediate the effect of classmates and mother and father on students' behaviour. In this regard, teachers' interest in and motivation towards teaching and mastering are essential variables in preventing dropout. It has been mentioned that motivation is prime in instructional success (Ning & Downing, 2011). Schiefele et al. (2013) proposed three dimensions of instructor interest: subject, didactic and academic interest. In the same way, Schiefele (2017) explains that academic interest involves instructors' interest in their teaching techniques. These techniques are mainly geared toward developing green work habits, social competencies, and moral values, as well as cost reorientation. Although this crucial aspect appears neglected in the scholarly literature, the current study bridged the gap specifically in the continuing education sphere by linking teacher-student interaction to dropout tendencies among students.
The third predictor considered in this study is indiscipline. Indiscipline is an unfavourable behaviour that no longer promotes peace and co-lifestyles in society but brings rancour and lack of peace to each event. Indiscipline could be visible as the unwillingness of the students to recognise the constituted authority, study and obey school regulations and policies and maintain highly fashionable behaviours conducive to teaching-learning technique and essential to the clean running of the faculty to acquire the educational objective quite simply (Timothy, 2018). This behaviour is a hydrant trouble/difficulty to many nations as it is a danger to the lives of these younger ones. Several global leaders have made many efforts to curtail this growing notoriety among students. However, it is regrettable that the media now cites the incidence of indiscipline in newspapers, radio and television, and social media structures (Clinard & Meier, 2015). In agreement with the above, Maphosa and Mammen (2011) pointed out that today's students are mentioned for disrespecting the government, going to school late, fighting amongst themselves, refusing homework, challenging parents and teachers alike, and dressing indecently. Some go to vandalising school assets and assaulting teachers for disciplinary actions towards them or a colleague. Past studies on indiscipline have tried to understand its prevalence (Atunde & Aliyu, 2019), causes (Muxiddin, 2020;Mwaniki, 2018;Wolhuter & Van der Walt, 2020) and management (Atunde & Aliyu, 2019;Gcelu et al., 2020;Offem et al., 2019). Others have associated it with variables such as students' academic performance (Amaewhule & Nukan-Adebayo, 2019). Rizzotto & França, 2022), safety (Gahungu, 2018), and corrupt practices (Arop et al., 2018). However, no previous study has associated students' indiscipline with their dropout tendencies in continuing education programmes. This is another significant contribution of the current study to address this gap. With the knowledge of these gaps, this study was conceived to determine whether peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and indiscipline can be responsible for dropout tendency among students in an evening continuing education programme in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. Notably, the study examined the following:

Hypotheses
The following research hypotheses guided the study.
Ho 1 : There is no significant correlation between peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and students' indiscipline in the evening continuing education programme.
HA 1 : There is a significant correlation between peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and students' indiscipline in the evening continuing education programme.
Ho 2 : There is no significant combined predictive relationship of peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and indiscipline to students' dropout tendency in the evening continuing education programme.
HA2: There is a significant combined predictive relationship of peer group influence, teacher-student interaction, and indiscipline to students' dropout tendency in the evening continuing education programme.
Ho3: There is no significant relative prediction of peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and indiscipline on dropout tendency among students in the evening continuing education programme.
HA3: There is a significant relative prediction of peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and indiscipline on dropout tendency among students in the evening continuing education programme.

Research Philosophy, Design, and Participants
Positivism in epistemology is the research paradigm and philosophy that underpins this investigation Saunders et al., 2015). The predictive correlation design was the main emphasis of this work, which adhered to the quantitative correlational research methodology (Creswell, 2011). In predictive design, the researcher must expressly state that the study's objective is to ascertain a variable's capacity for prediction (Pandita, 2012, p.1). This design is appropriate for the present research since the criterion variable is students' dropout tendency, and the predictors are peer group influence, teacher-students interaction and indiscipline. The correlational design of this research will be used to analyse how much the identified predictors jointly and individually predict the criterion variable. Multiple variables may be analysed using correlational designs (Rashid, 2012). In terms of data gathering, this research used a cross-sectional approach. In contrast to longitudinal studies, which gather data over time, the cross-sectional technique enables researchers to get information from selected respondents at a single moment in time . The researchers could distribute questionnaire copies to responders only once because of this approach. The sample for this study consists of 554 students (310 males and 244 females) randomly selected from 11 centres, representing 20% of the total number of students in the population.

Instrument for Data Collection
The instrument used for data collection from respondents is a self-constructed questionnaire titled "Social Indicators and Dropout Tendency Scale" (SIDTS). The questionnaire was subdivided into three parts. Part A collected information on the demographic data of the students. Part B measured school variables such as peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and level of indiscipline with 18 items on a 4-point modified Likert-type scale, while Part C measured the students' dropout tendency with ten items on a 4-point modified Likert-type scale. The face validity of the instrument was established by research experts and the fact that the scale measures what they intended to measure. The experts scrutinised the research instrument, eliminated vague, ambiguous and double-barrelled questions and replaced them with more appropriate ones. To ascertain the instrument's reliability, 30 copies of the instrument were pilot-tested using one centre in an area that did not constitute the sample for the study. The data was analysed using the Cronbach Alpha reliability method, which gave reliability coefficients ranging from .73 to .78, considered high enough for the instrument to be used for the study.

Ethical Considerations and Data Collection Procedures
Before any information was collected, all participants signed a written permission form. Informed permission forms were completed or thumb printed by all participants before participating in the study. All respondents approached for the research were aware that their participation was voluntary. After being informed of the goals of the research, all respondents voluntarily agreed to participate based on their own free will. Since completing a questionnaire did not pose a substantial risk to participants' health and the questions were not self-directed, neither national nor institutional regulations required that they be revised to include ethical approval as a prerequisite for conducting this study (see page 13 of http://www.nhrec.net/nhrec/NCHRE 10.pdf). For confidentiality reasons, we did not collect Information from respondents was aggregated, and all identifiable details were removed. The respondents also agreed that their replies might be published without revealing their identities. Subjects were administered the survey with the help of three research assistants who were briefed on the study's goals and methods prior to the investigation. Problems with data collection may be avoided if questionnaire items are explained to be checked off correctly (Owan, Emanghe et al., 2022). After the study, completed questionnaires were collected over a five-day timeframe. We retrieved all administered copies of the questionnaires, indicating that data collection went well. It was a perfect return, with all copies of the instrument being returned.

Data Preparation and Analysis Procedures
Collected data were prepared on a person-by-item matrix after scoring the responses for both negatively-and positively-worded items in reverse order. Continuous-interval data were obtained by summing the responses to all items for each study factor (variable). Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression analysis were used for hypothesis testing. All the hypotheses guiding the study were tested at the .05 alpha level and corresponding degrees of freedom. The linear regression model of this study is derived from the general form: Y = a + b 1 X 1 + b 2 X 2 + b 3 X 3 , …, b n X n + ε ……………………………………..…. 1 Where: Y = the criterion variable a = intercept b1 -bn = the regression of coefficients of the first, second, third to the nth predictor X1 -Xn = the first, second, third to the nth predictor ε = the error representing the Y value when all predictors are zero.

Hypothesis One
The null hypothesis states that there is no significant correlation between peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and students' indiscipline in the evening continuing education programme. The alternative hypothesis states a significant correlation between peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and students' indiscipline in the evening continuing education programme. Pearson product-moment correlation analysis tested this hypothesis at the .05 alpha level. The result of the analysis, shown in Table 1 revealed a significant inverse correlation between peer group influence and teacher-students interaction (r = -.30, p < .05). Table 1 also shows that peer group influence has a positive relationship with indiscipline (r = .42, p < .05). However, Table 1 shows that a positive correlation (r = .39, p < .05) between teacher-students interaction and indiscipline. Based on these results, the null hypothesis was rejected for not receiving statistical support, whereas the alternative hypothesis was supported. Therefore, there is a significant correlation between peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and students' indiscipline in the evening continuing education programme.

Hypothesis Two
The null hypothesis states no significant combined predictive relationship of peer group influence, teacher-student interaction, and indiscipline to students' dropout tendency in the evening continuing education programme. Alternatively, the hypothesis states a significant combined predictive relationship of peer group influence, teacher-student interaction, and indiscipline to students' dropout tendency in the evening continuing education programme. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesis at the .05 level of significance. Table 2 reveals that taking the independent variables collectively accounted for 23% of the total variance in the dropout tendency among the students. This suggests that other predictors not included in the model might explain 77% of the unaccounted proportion of the variation. The F-test in Table 2 shows a significant combined predictive relationship (R = 0.48) of the three predictors to the criterion variable, F(3, 550) = 54.99, p < .001. Following these results, the alternative hypothesis was upheld for receiving statistical support, while the null hypothesis was rejected.

Hypothesis Three
The null form of this hypothesis states that there is no significant relative prediction of peer group influence, teacher-student interaction, and indiscipline on dropout tendency among students in the evening continuing education programme. The alternative hypothesis states a significant relative prediction of peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and indiscipline on dropout tendency among students in the evening continuing education programme. The multiple linear regression analysis's relative standardised coefficients (beta weights) were used to test this hypothesis at the .05 alpha level. Table 3 reveals that all the predictors significantly predicted the criterion variables. However, peer group influence (β = 0.13, p < .01) and indiscipline (β = 0.32, p < .001) had a significant positive prediction on students' dropout tendency, while teacher-student interaction had a significant negative prediction on students' dropout tendency (β = -0.19, p < .001). The alternative hypothesis was upheld based on this evidence, whereas the null hypothesis was disregarded. By ranking, indiscipline was the strongest predictor (t = 7.85), followed by contributed most to the prediction of dropout tendency among the students, followed by teacher-student interaction (t = -4.78) and peer group influence (t = 3.12) in that order. Based on the result in Table 3, the regression line of this study is fitted as follows:

Discussion
The result revealed that peer group influence and indiscipline had a significant positive correlation. In contrast, teacher-student interaction had a significant negative relationship with peer group influence and indiscipline among students. This indicates that more substantial peer group influence and indiscipline tend to be associated with increased dropout tendency and vice versa. In contrast, higher teacher-student interaction is associated with a reduced dropout tendency and vice versa. The result further revealed that peer group influence and level of indiscipline had significant positive predictions on dropout tendency among the students. In contrast, teacher-student interaction had a significant negative predictive influence on dropout tendency among the students.
This finding was so since peer group plays a significant role in students' actions and inactions, indicating that peers are often highly influential in convincing one another to try crime or other maladjusted behaviours. They are expected to encourage their peers to match their academic standards, whereas the negative peer groups are younger students who might indulge in occult activities and consequently drop out of school. This finding is similar to Bisong's (2016) finding, who observed in her study that peers also influence their friends positively or negatively based on their physical appearance. Unhappy individuals, alienated, poorly achieving in school, and with low self-esteem are often rejected in society. They have many social problems ranging from absenteeism, adolescent delinquency, criminality in young adulthood and dropping out of a programme. These differences in peer influence serve as a determining factor in the dropout of evening continuing education students. Students with negative peer influence tend to drop out or retrogress. Similarly, the finding is in line with Uzezi and Deya (2017), who found significant differences in academic achievement in chemistry between students who belong to peer groups and those who do not belong.
Since teacher-student interaction significantly influences dropout tendency among evening continuing education students, the more the students interact with their teachers, the more they will share their difficulties with the teachers. In contrast, the teachers will provide a positive solution, reducing the tendency to drop out of school. This could be a result of the fact that the friendly teacher-student interaction could encourage or motivate the students to complete their education. Also, students who experience unfriendly teacher-student interaction might be scared of the teacher, hence will devise means of playing truancy. The evening continuing education centre teachers do not have sufficient time to render other services such as counselling, sporting activities, and subject practicals as the school duration are concise for them to complete their scheme of work. Also, teachers of these schools often concentrate only on their subjects; hence this could cause the students, especially mature adults, to be withdrawn from school.
The finding is in line with Isangedighi (2010), who maintained that a good relationship between teachers and students would create an atmosphere devoid of unnecessary tension that can prevail in healthy learning. If a cordial relationship exists between the teacher and his students, the barrier that can prevent healthy teaching and learning will be broken; hence students will show high achievement in their learning experiences and willingness to complete the programme. The finding was contrary to that of the study of Rasmy et al. (2017), which found no significant between-group difference in terms of teacher-student interactions; the small group discussions in the flipped classroom offered students more opportunities to clarify questions in an interactive learning environment than did the self-study in the conventional classroom. This might be due to differences in the study's use of quasi-experimental or smaller population size or the use of analysis of variance.
The finding as regards the level of indiscipline could be since young adults are actively ready to exhibit new behaviours presented to them by their peers in the class or school, thus hurting their continuity in the programme. The mature adults in the programme are relatively well-behaved as they understand why they enrolled in the evening programme. The finding is in accord with Peters (2012), who studied the relationship between drug use and school dropout. Thus, the researchers concluded that drug use is a contributing factor that precedes dropping out of school.

Conclusion, Implications and Recommendations
This quantitative predictive correlational study was designed to understand the links between three predictors (peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and indiscipline) to students' dropout tendencies. The result of this study provided evidence that peer group, teacher-student interaction, and indiscipline are essential predictors of students' dropout tendency in the evening continuing education students in the Southern Senatorial District of Cross River State, Nigeria. This conclusion can help the management of the evening continuing education programme to develop effective strategies to reduce the negative influence of peers among students. The result is also helpful for teachers in the programme to improve their interaction quality with students to reduce the chances of students' quitting the programme. The result can also enable the teachers and managers of the evening programme to use proactive measures in addressing indiscipline among evening continuing education students in the programme. Lastly, this study's result may assist in promoting students' retention in the programme through the joint increment in peer group management, teacher-students interaction, and discipline control in the programme. Based on this conclusion, it is recommended that teachers within the programme should ensure that the students, especially the young adults know and understand why they enrolled on the programme through counselling services; teachers should also devise ways of engaging the students in the learning process by forming discussion groups that promote positive peer groups and eagerness to come to school. It is also recommended that teachers should discover diverse ways of making their teaching process lively by devising ways of engaging the students in the learning process by forming discussion groups that will promote healthy teacher-student relationships, which will increase their eagerness to come to school; When students are free to confide with their teachers about their difficulties openly, they will be advised accordingly and encouraged to continue the programme. Furthermore, disciplinary measures should be enforced by the teachers and school management on students who exhibit indiscipline behaviours like lateness to the programme, loitering and failure to do assignments, as it will encourage them to be serious in their studies.