ABSTRACT:

This descriptive comparative study focuses on the spending habits of junior and senior high school
students of Alicia National high school during the pandemic using the maturity and consumer theory.
These theories helped this study guide the researchers to find out who's the mature one is when it
comes to managing their money, how junior and senior high school students spend their money, and
how often they spend money. 60 respondents permitted their answers in the survey to contribute to the
goal of this study. This study aims to show the comparison between junior high school and senior high
school students in terms of spending habits and the possible significant differences. As interpreted from
the answers of the respondents, the junior high school students are the one who’s likely to spend more
money during the pandemic, and the senior high students are the one who’s more likely to spend less
and save money. The results revealed that there is a significant difference between the spending habits
of junior high school and senior high school students during the pandemic. The findings of this study
may help students to be aware of their spending habits, and to be wise when it comes to spending their
money.

Introduction

Many people have different ways of how they spend their money; it can be spent on important things,
essential things that we need, especially now that we are in a pandemic situation, on unnecessary things
that we find cute or attractive, for collection, and many more reasons to spend it more often that may
lead to people’s spending habits. Spending habits are the behavior pattern that is followed regularly that
is almost involuntary. It is a habit of spending money whenever you have money and every moment you
get paid. It is a habit that many people didn’t realize or noticed to their selves. According to Money
Habitudes (2020), it is often contextual. You spend the same way with the same set of conditions.
Because it’s a habit, it may be so natural and involuntary that you don’t even realize it. The examples of
it are you always spend a lot of money right after you get paid, that might mean taking your family out
to dinner every payday; You always give to charity at the end of the year; You have a habit of spending
on souvenir T-shirts on vacation, and You always wait until the last minute to buy a plane ticket.

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, many online business platforms became popular and recognized by
many people. As staying at home is kind of boring to others, especially the youth, social media became
their entertainment including online shopping. Many people continue their work by selling online as
they became unemployed due to closing many businesses, malls, and works during the lockdown. At the
same time, many people spent their time buying things online. Many online businesses increased as
people, especially the students can’t go outside to buy the things they need for their face to face classes,
so they use the online platforms to buy necessary and unnecessary things they want to buy. During the
pandemic, it became the spending habits of many people, buying things online as much as they have
money and as much they see things that they want/need to buy. The researchers came up with this
topic to further know if there is a significant difference between the spending habits of junior High
School and senior high school Students. This will contribute to future studies in the field of education
related to students’ decision making especially the ones who are not wise about spending their money.
Statement of the Problem

The goal of this study is to show thecomparison between Senior High School andCollege Students in
terms of Spending Habitsduring the Pandemic.

Conseptual Framework

The purpose of this study will help us understandand show the comparison between junior and senior
high school students in terms of Spending Habits. How they manage their money as online business
platforms became popular in this Covid-19 Pandemic situation. According to Argyris’ (2016) Maturity
Theory, he introduced Personality and Organization, which is one of the theories that attempt to
understand human existence and behavior. According to his principle, a person's progression is tracked
through a continuous transition from immaturity to maturity. Active, autonomous, self-assured, and
self-controlled are characteristics of a mature individual. An immature person, on the other hand, is
passive, dependent, lack motivation, and thinks he or she needs to be controlled by others. As stated in
Consumer Theory, it describes how people make decisions based on their financial resources and the
cost of goods and services. It shows how individuals make choices to spend their money and build a
better understanding of individuals’ tastes. Consumer theory isn't perfect and it relies on a lot of
conclusions regarding human nature since people are unfamiliar with the goods, certain choices are
difficult to make for them.

Significance of the Study

The findings of this research will provide a significant and in-depth result about the spending habits of
junior and senior high school students during the Pandemic.

Students: This may serve as a guide to managing their spending habits during the pandemic

Parents: The data from the study will help and guide parents to teach the children to become wise on
spending their money.

Business owners: The result of the study will help the business owners plays a vital role in decisions
about what products or services to offer and how to sell them.

Society: The study may serve as data for comparison for a different institution to aim to develop and
enhance the critical thinking, decision-making, and maturity of a person.

Future researchers: This may also benefit because they get information, ideas, and guidelines for future
research and study about the spending habits of junior High School and senior high school Students.

Scope and delimitation

-This study hypothesized that there is no significant difference between junior High School and senior
high school students in terms of Spending Habits
Definition of Terms

Spending habits -The difference between the spending money of junior High School and senior high
school Students; spending money for things that they want and how often they do it.

Junior High School Students -Someone who is currently enrolled in Grade 9 or Grade 10 in a DepEd
recognized school.

Senior high school Students- Someone who is currently enrolled in grade 11 or grade 12 in a deped
recognized school.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents the summary of literature and studies that have relevance to the present study.
They are viewed by the researcher to gain deeper in sights into the field of study. It was from these
materials that the concept of this work was based and formed. It also included the theoretical and
conceptual framework on which this study was anchored.

Junior High School

-Students in junior high school really want to be independent, and parents already know about it
because they have been through it. Teenagers can become estranged from their parents in junior high
school when they are entering the world and doing a lot of things on their own, and instead of
questioning, they always only behave. I believe that if you are reasonable, parents will always say yes if
you ask, for example, if you should stay out later than normal. Remember to reflect on what is relevant,
be compassionate, and clearly express your desires and needs the next time you are looking for
opportunities to become independent and win confidence from adults in your life (Harrison,
2015).Additionally, Biswas (2018) conducted a study about Emotional maturity that is about
understanding and managing emotions/actions. It aims to look at the emotional maturity of students in
higher secondary schools. The investigator self-designed and administered the emotional Maturity Scale
(EMS) to assess students' emotional maturity. The reliability was measured and was found to be 0.72.
After analyzing the data, it was discovered that all H.S. School students have matured emotionally and
the findings revealed that there is no substantial variation in Emotional Maturity among H.S. School
Level students depending on gender or location.

Senior high school Students

Being a senior high student is fun, but there are so many responsibilities ahead of that. Some senior high
students are the first time to leave the warmth of their parents and be away from their home. This is the
early age of being an adult so that they need to learn to live on their own and budget their own money.
Determining the distinction between necessary and non-essential objects is another challenge for many
senior high students. Food, clothes, are essential products for daily life and grooming, as well as,
arguably, for schooling. Non-essential items are items that you don't need on a daily basis, such as a
new pair of shoes or an iPad. Non-essentials are things that are "want to have" but are not " important."
Restrict your expenses to just important goods until you've been used to working under your means ,
which could be tough at first (Segal, 2020).

The goal for senior high students is to gain flexibility and understand the value of being able to set their
plans. Independence does not imply that you are capable of navigating life on your own.
Instead ,independence is a valuable life skill that you will earn in senior high, and you acquire an
understanding of what it takes to be an adult in the real world . Gozon (2017) stated that most senior
high students want to be independent, and some of them are already independent or in the process of
being independent. Independence is taking care of the self without any major help from others like
family or friends. Many people will be challenged and inspired by senior high, and it will also help
students gain maturity and freedom .According to a study conducted by Majeed (2020),arrogance is
appropriate in an emotionally stable individual. They make the most of their social, behavioral, physical,
and psychological skills. They are competent in resolving conflicts in a timely fashion, and their
emotional experiences are rational .In their emotional surroundings, they may use their creativity. They
are capable of loving many people and being compassionate to others. The focus of the paper is on the
idea of emotional maturity. Its traits, as well as the relevance and barriers to emotional maturity, have
been illustrated. In their emotional environments, they can use their creativity. They will love many
people and sympathize with others. The topic of emotional maturity is the focus of the current article.
Along with it, the importance of emotional intelligence has been emphasized, as well as the challenges
that stand in the way.

Spending Habits Spending Behavior

Money, through the years, has been a commodity for everyone. As it is termed in international trade
parlance, it is considered to be “sine qua non” or without which, nothing could be done. According to a
study conducted at the Lyceum of the Philippines University - Batangas, it was determined that the
current spending status of the teaching personnel in the university had been more focused on their
basic necessities. Furthermore, it also concluded that aside from their commodities, they’re also
experiencing excessive spending on unnecessary things (Perculeza et . al, 2020).As the pandemic
brought abrupt changes to the country that has led to the immediate adjustment from the practices of
the people before the outbreak, consumers are currently learning to adapt to the changes especially in
terms of obtaining their daily needs. As stated by Parson et al. (2020), a global crisis struck the world in
the shape of the COVID-19pandemic at the beginning of 2020. As a result, supermarkets have
experienced panic buying behaviors ,empty store shelves, out of stocks, and a large increase in online
sales. Supermarkets, producers, marketers, and businesses have had to adapt to consumers' changed
buying behavior in food consumption. In previous research, it has been found that price and quality are
two of the most influential factors in the consumer decision process, increased price sensitivity and
perceived quality of food products concerns consumers in crisis situations. They investigated their
respondents based on price sensitivity and perceived quality factors with two specific categories: meat
and vegetables. 169responses from consumers were analyzed and the result suggests that the buying
behavior regarding price sensitivity and perceived quality of meat, fruits, and vegetables has changed
during the COVID-19 pandemic and no moderating effect of residency was found. The result of the study
created a foundation in a unique crisis that has never been studied before and the exploratory nature of
the study gives multiple indicators for future research (Parson et al., 2020).However, even before the
changes effectuated byCOVID-19, there were already cases and issues regarding the behavior of
consumers especially in the market. According to Stilley et al. (2010), consumer shave in-store slack for
grocery trips that is, they leave room in their mental budgets to make unplanned purchases. Moreover,
the study also evaluated the effect of promotional savings for both planned and unplanned items on
spending varies as a function of whether the item is purchased before or after the shopper's in-store
slack is depleted as well as its varying relationship depending on the income. In addition, the result also
suggested that savings on planned items lead to stockpiling by higher-income shoppers when the
savings occur before the in-stores lack has been depleted but lead to increased purchase of unplanned
items when they occur after in-stores lack is depleted. Thus, promotions on unplanned grocery items
generate incremental spending at the basket level, which increases with income but only when the item
is purchased after the in-store slack is exceeded.

Behavior of Youth on Spending in General

Financial literacy has become a significant challenge in society especially among the young generation.
Financial Literacy refers to specific understanding, attitudes, and normative influences on financial
matters. It will help the youthful generation to make good financial commitment. Mohammed et al.
(2018) conducted a study that aims to determine the height of financial literacy amid the young
generation in Malaysia. It directs to developing a unique representation of financial literacy among
youthful age as assumed Family, Peer, Attitude, Saving and spending behavior significantly influence
Financial Literacy among Young Generations. The results revealed a significant positive relationship
between Behavior and Financial Literacy. Further more,the findings showed that Family/Parental and
Peer significantly influenced Financial Literacy. The study implies that it is related to the public,
academic and university administrators, government, and financial advisor to grow the level of financial
literacy by implementing several financial educational programmers. Additionally, youth are an
influential group by virtue of their numbers in the total population, purchasing power, high levels of
leisure time and exposure to abundance of information because of the advent of technology. Chavali
(2020) stated by the conducted study that the influence of peers, influence of parents and financial
literacy of youth are significantly correlated with the saving and spending habits of youth. The
conducted study aims to investigate the saving and spending habits of youth in Alicia national high
school and its objectives are the saving and spending habits of youth and the variables which have an
impact on it.

Habits of Students in terms of Financial Aspect

In recent times, one of the most enduring challenges that still affect senior high students is the huge
difficulty in controlling the way they spend, and worldwide, very minute research has been done about
this. The current level of the problem on the spending front is again, not absolutely figured and sorted
out. The study conducted by Singh et al. (2020), focused on determining the spending behavior of 138
university students in Delhi & Mumbai. Respondents were found to be spending tightly when it came to
shopping and travelling and academic purposes and loosely when it came to entertainment and lifestyle.
It can be concluded that gender, being outstation or being based in the city were the key determinants
that made the difference on spending behavior. Binobo et al. (2019) stated that no significant difference
in the level of financial literacy when participants are grouped according to grade level, district and
family monthly income. But there is a significant difference in the level of financial literacy when
grouped according to sex. Further results show that there are existing relationships between spending
habits, saving habits and financial knowledge among it each other. The conducted study determined the
level of financial literacy of junior high school students from Alicia national high school of paddad, Alicia
isabela. It dwells on the areas spending habits, saving habits and financial knowledge in order to
determine the overall financial knowledge. Meanwhile, the spending habits of students nowadays has
become a major concern in our society in view of the increase in bankruptcy cases and social problems
among younger generation which are often associated with their financial instability due to poor
individual financial management. Poh (2016) stated by the conducted study that prestige factor,
promotional approaches and social status are factors which influence the spending habits of the
students, whereas the product usage and purchasing power do not have significant influenced the
students' spending habits, but there is an indirect factor influencing the spending habits because it is
correlated to prestige factor and promotional approaches. The study aims to know the factors
influencing the spending habits of students and to fill the knowledge gap on their spending, dependent
variable is spending habits, and four independent variables have been determined, namely product
usage and purchasing power, social status, promotional approaches and prestige.

Senior high school Students A.

Local

Spending habits of senior high students can affect their financial mistakes in the future that’s why the
study have a survey whereas the students who were enrolled in Accountancy, Business and
management which results the highest 76% of the 60 respondents received an allowance from their
parents and the lowest 2% have personal investments where they get their allowances. The results
revealed that the highest percent where the student spend their monthly allowance was in clothing and
accessories with 41.1% and the lowest was the beauty products and services with 32.2%. The spending
habits of students were discovered that peer pressure and product consistency were the two factors
that influence the students purchasing decisions (Perdido et al., 2016).senior high students have
experience difficulty managing their expenses especially in terms of Personal needs, foods, academic
purposes and transportation. According to a study conducted by Dimaala et al. (2019), senior high
students are loose in spending their money when it comes to their personal needs, academic purposes,
and transportation, and it became tight when it comes to their foods. The study conducted focused on
the general weighted average and a monthly allowance of the accountancy, business and management
students in Alicia national high school, padda Alicia isabela. The study conducted to determine if there is
any relation between the general average and allowance of the selected students with their spending
habits, and the results revealed that the participants are loose in spending their money when it comes
to their personal needs, academic purposes, and transportation, and it became tight when it comes to
their foods. Also, there is no connection between the general weighted average and the monthly
allowance. In similarity to the previous study, the preparation and consumption of one’s food is
governed by choices, attitudes, behavior, and beliefs. According to a study conducted by Delayco and
Bianca (2015), students do planning for eating out because of the delicious taste under the variable of
beliefs and evaluation, budgeting under the behavioral intent, and lastly having their meal and
budgeting under the variable of actual behavior. The study determined the budgeting and eating out
behavior of the Alicia national high school students. Also, it revealed that as general weighted average
increases, the monthly allowance decreases and vice- versa. On the other hand, one of the challenges
that seniorhigh students encounter is the difficulty to control the way they spend and in the Philippines,
very minimal research has been conducted about this. The level of the perceived problem on the
spending is still not absolutely figured out. The study determined the factors affecting the spending
behaviour among the senior high students in paddad Alicia isabela. Its purpose study was to understand
how the factors influenced the spending conduct of senior high students and their financial behavior.
The findings is that parents play a key role in shaping the attitude and behavior of their children. Senior
high students spent more money on tasks and assignments and school supplies and transportation.
Majority of the respondents are female, and the majority of them depend on their parents for financial
support. It is due to the rising cost of the materials needed to complete their tasks and assignments.

B.

International

The purpose of the study is to determine the spending habits among senior high students in Alicia
national high school. The research result indicated four major finding. The first finding is the senior high
students mostly like to spend their money on food because they are students and they need a lot of
foods to survive in their life. The second finding is a majority of the female respondents mostly like to
spend money on shopping because shopping is a woman thing, they love to explore things and even
shopping comes to their rescue at this time when they feel sad or unhappy. On another hand, a majority
of the male respondents mostly like to spend on entertainment compared to other activities because
male mostly like to play game and half of them who play video, computer or online games, they feel that
it keeps them from studying “some” or a “lot.” The third finding is majority respondents get the source
income from the family income because the senior high students like to spend money on some
expenses. The last finding the financial planning is an important ways to improve the financial
management because it plays an important role indetermining the senior high students how to spend
their money wisely (Jin Jin, 2017).Nowadays, uncontrollable spending habit towards young generations
are becoming progressively. They tend to have less value of money compared to the elder generations
in spending their money. According to a study conducted by Kamis et al. (2020), there were only three
factors of money attitude (power-prestige, retention-time, and anxiety) have a significant effecton
spending behavior among anhs students and anxiety is the most influential factor of money attitude
towards spending behavior. The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship of money attitude
actors (power-prestige, distrust-frugality, retention-time and anxiety) as determinants of anhs students’
spending behaviors.

However, Jeevitha and Priya (2019) stated to the conducted study that students saved less than they
spend but their spending avenues are different. Most of the students have savings and they know about
the importance of savings. Students commonly prefer saving bank account as their saving avenues.
Students save for their emergency situation. From the study on spending pattern of students, they are
spending higher amount in transportation and studies. The study determine to see the saving and
spending habits of senior high students and the survey was administered among 200 senior high going
students. Meanwhile, according to a study conducted by Villanueva (2017), Whites and Asians spend
significantly more than other ethnicities while Blacks save significantly more.
The study assessed the factors that significantly influenced impulse buying and ascertained which
among these factors greatly influenced it. The study determined the type of impulse buying behavior the
consumers have. Three hundred eighty-five consumers which were making purchases at the time and
place of the data gathering were the participants of the study. The findings revealed that both the
internal and external factors have significant influence to the behavior of the participants when buying
impulsively. The study identified that age, marital status, net monthly income, shopping enjoyment and
promotional approach exhibit significant influence. The findings ascertained that the participants were
planned impulse buyers. Moreover, it identified that for internal factors the net monthly income has a
great influence and for external factors, shopping enjoyment greatly influence the impulse buying
behavior of the consumers(Plaza et al., 2017).The World Wide Web has propelled in no small extent of
changes in the attitude and behavior of people all over the world. Due to this blessing, online shopping
has emerged which influenced the lives of ordinary citizens. Online shopping has also been started in
Bangladesh, but consumers are not much habituated yet to go online shopping frequently. The survey
reveals that consumers shop online to save time, and for available varieties of products and services.
Both male and female both have the same type of behavior towards liking and disliking factors; they like
home delivery facility and dislike inability to touch and feel the product most. They acquire online
shopping information from websites especially from the social network and purchase apparels,
accessories mostly through cash on delivery method of payment. Most of the consumers are concern
about the security of the payment system, and their overall online shopping satisfaction is mixed.

Synthesis

As senior high students became independent in terms of spending money, the junior high school
students on the other side wants to be independent. Being a senior high students is hard as they have
new challenges , more responsibilities, and to live and handle money on their own. Emotional Maturity
is not based on the age, status, but it is based on how people grow and became matured on their
adolescent stage as some people became matured early, and some are late. There are 5categories
related to spending habits, the first one is the spending behaviour. Spending money has become a habit
of many people whenever they have money, sometimes it became impulsive and lacks of money
management that we need especially in this pandemic situation; the Second is Behaviour of Youth on
Spending in General because it includes any age, gender, grade level as we know even the kids
nowadays know how to spend money as they became advance in technology; the third is the Habits of
Students interms of Financial Aspect as we know that being a student, there are needs for school, for
personal needs and wants, and other essential & non-essential things. It includes how students spend
their money at the same time their way of saving; the fourth one is senior high Students as they know
more expensive in spending money because of their chosen courses. It has local and international
studies related to senior high students in terms of spending behaviour and financial aspect, and the last
one is the Buying Behaviour of Consumers because of impulsiveness of many people, their behaviour
when they handle their money, and the effect as online shopping has emerged which influenced the
lives of ordinary citizens.