Peer Group and Parental Support as Correlates of Academic Performance of Senior Secondary School Students in South West, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines peer group and parental support as correlates of the academic performance of Senior Secondary School Students in South West Nigeria. The study adopted an ex-post facto design and descriptive research design of survey type. The population comprises all Senior Secondary School Students in South West Nigeria. The sample of the study consisted of one thousand, one hundred and fifty (1,150) senior secondary school students (i.e. SS 3) drawn from three states out of the six states in the South West Geo-political zone; namely Osun, Ondo and Ekiti. The researcher made use of a questionnaire and an inventory to collect data. A self -designed questionnaire tagged “Motivation and Academic Performance of Senior Secondary School Students” (MAPSSS) was used to elicit information from the respondents. This consists of two parts. Parts A and B. Parts A consists of the bio-data of the respondents (students), while Parts B consists of 9 Sections, Sections A-I, Section H and I of the questionnaire support was used to measure the relationship between peer influence and parental support on students’ academic performance. The two null hypotheses formulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that there was a positive significant relationship between peer group, and parental support and the academic performance of students. On the basis of these findings, it was recommended that parents should monitor the type of peer group their children or ward mix or mingle with in school and provide the necessary support by providing all the educational needs of their children. They need to monitor the academic performance of their children/wards while they are in school.