Peer Influence and Academic Performance Senior One Girls in Selected Secondary Schools in Buwama Town Council in Mpigi District Uganda

ABSTRACT This qualitative and quantitative study was undertaken to investigate the relationshz~ between peer influence and academic performance of senior one girls in selected secondary schools in Buwama town council in Mpigi district Uganda. The study was guided by the following objectives: To establish how peer group prior achievements influence senior one girls’ educational attainments; to investigate how group compositions peer has influenced senior one girl ~ educational attainments; to examine how peer learning environment has influenced senior one girls educational attainments. The key instrument applied in this study was the questionnaire which was characterized by the three types of item construction mentioned above, as well as a selected response format of A Likert scale. A total number of sixty eight respondents were utilized for this study. Findings indicate that peer group members who scored good marks in FLE had positive influence on girls’ educational attainments in secondary schools. Students seemed to do better in their early stages ofSecondary school when their new Schoolmates had a good record ofprior achievement. My reading of this result was that there was some form of social interaction between students that promoted higher attainments. And lastly it was asserted that peer group text book ratio had no sign~fIcant influence on girls’ educational attainments in secondary schools. Concerning influence ofpeer group composition on girl student academic performance in secondary schools, findings showed that little pocket money spend per month had a positive influence to girl student performance. This showed that low money spent by peers is an important ‘contextual’influence on student attainments. It was deduced that neither a rich nor a poor family background had any significant influence on girl student academic performance. On the basis ofthe findings and conclusions above, the following section presents the recommendations of the study; Students and school stakeholders should be made aware of the benefits ofpeer group prior achievements as it greatly influences academic performance of students in secondary schools; Schools administration and other stakeholders should advise the parents on the amount ofmoney to give to their daughters as pocket money as it has influence on the academic performance of the students in secondary schools, School administration and stakeholders should provide good teaching/ learning environment in order to achieve good academic performance