Influence of Peer Group on Students' Academic Performance in Junior Secondary Schools in Rivers West Senatorial District, Rivers State, Nigeria

The study investigated influence of peer group on students’ academic performance in Junior Secondary Schools in Rivers West Senatorial District in Rivers State. Two specific objectives, two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A descriptive research design was adopted in the study. The population of this study was 29,468 drawn from the eight local government areas of Rivers West Senatorial District. A sample size of 395 respondents was drawn using Taro Yamane’s formula and purposive sampling technique which consists 220 males and 175 females. A 25 self-structured Questionnaire was used titled “Influence of Peer Group on Academic Performance of Junior Secondary school students with 25 items to elicit information from the respondents. The validity of the instrument was certified by the expert opinion of the researcher’s supervisor and two (2) experts in Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Educational Foundations, Rivers State University. The research questions were answered using Mean and Standard Deviation while the null hypotheses were tested using Z-test at 0.05 level of significance with a critical value of ± 1.96. Results showed high extent of influence of group peer pressure, high extent of influence of peer group decision-making, high extent of influence of peer group socialinteraction, high extent of influence of peer group time-management and high extent of influence of peer group interpersonal relationship on the academic performance of Students in Junior Secondary Schools in Rivers West Senatorial District in Rivers State. Hence, the study made the following recommendations, among others: that government and Ministry of Education should ensure that trained counselors are posted to all schools so as to provide proactive counseling services, and other government agencies should actively participate and get involved in role-modeling of students by introducing informative programs that could educate them about peer group influence and proper time management. Thus, refocusing them meaningfully towards excellent academic performance; this could help the development of the nation’s academic future.