CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter the study covers the background of the study, statement of the problem of the
study, main objectives and specific objectives of the study, research questions of the study,
significance of the study, and scope of the study

1.1 BAC ;.(G RO UND TO T f D: STUDY

The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (2001) defined peer group as a group of people of
same age or social status. The peer group is the first social group outside the home in which the
child attempts to gain acceptance and recognition. Peer group is an important influence
throughout one's life but they are more critical during the developmental years of childhood and
adolescence. Adolescents always emulate their vague in whatever form of behavior they exhibit,
particularly that which interest them thus, since socialization only refer to changes in behavior,
attitudes having their origin in interaction with other persons and those which occur through
integration, a child learn more through interaction with peers. Socialization being a life-long
process that cannot be limited to the family members alone. As a child grows older and more
matured, it become more necessary for the external bodies to be involved in his life .The family
is not expected to provide all the education required by the growing child. The school which is
an established academic institution in which the behavior of an individual is sharpened to get
him equipped for occupational socialization. In the school system, the child gets into the social
group of "like minds" and interest. As a result of the various attitudes, skills, knowledge is
acquired through role-play. Peer group as an agent of socialization is the most important
socializing is the most important socializing agent for the developing child. Peer group is the
pivot of social change and during interaction peers; the child's life is transformed from the
helpless child into a mature adult

Each peer group has its code of conduct which does not always conform to the standard of
adult. The important thing is that each child takes his membership of the peer very serious and
attempts to do anything to ensure he is accepted and recognized. Lack of acceptance by the peer
disturbs the child especially at adolescent age. Some children have been known to do badly in
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school not because they lack the academic ability to do well but because they are disturbed by
the fact they are not accepted by their peer group. That makes learning comparative is the fact
that the child has equal status with the other children. There is an atmosphere of freedom in
which each child learns the way of the world from others. The peer group thus becomes more
and more important to the advances in age. Other ways in which the peer group can help the
child include, teaching the culture of the society at large making possible social mobility,
providing opportunity for the child to play many social roles such as that of a leader, a follower,
teacher or student. The peer group also help the child to win his/her independence easily from
domination and set before him a goal which is more easily Attainable than the expectation of
adults. This in itself provides motivation for learning and is mainly responsible for the fact that
all children at one stage or the other regard their membership of peer group as very important.

When the family is not supportive for instance, if the parents work extra jobs and are largely
unavailable, their children may turn to their peer for emotional support. This also occur when the
conflict between parents and children during adolescence or at any stage during a child's
development becomes so great that the child feels pushed away and seeks company elsewhere.
Most children and adolescents in this position do not discriminate about the kind of group they
join. They will often turn to a group simply because the group accepts them even if the group is
involved in negative tendency (Peter Smith and Anthony Pellegrini, 2001). The need for
affection or closeness is often greater than the need to do the right thing. For some adolescents
who feel isolated and abandoned by members of their family being part of a peer group provides
such individual with acceptance and security not available at home. In the Ugandan society
today, the influence of peer group cannot be over emphasized in a child's life most especially
child education. Peer group has in one way or the other influenced the life of children both
academically, socially, morally, psychologically and otherwise. It helps just like any other agent
of school students in Bulow district. Socialization such as family, religion, mass media, and
school among others help in modifying the behavior of the child. In conclusion, therefore the
influence of peer group on the academic performance of secondary school students cannot be
over emphasized. The peer group forms the main basis through which the child learns lot of
empirical facts about his physical and social environment, acquisition of skills and value as well
as attitude for a better future.

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1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

children socialize with the people they associate. Through interaction over many years,
acceptable social customs are taught and fostered. Other children as well as adults can have a
great impact on a broad range of issues in the child's life including achievement in schools. The
research was geared towards having a proper understanding of the way social interaction affect
academic achievement and it was very important for parents, educators, and policy makers. The
immediate environment such as peer, family, school, religion and other factors can encourage or
discourage students' academic perrormance. This research was an inquiry into the influence of
peer group on the Academic performance of secondary school students in Bulcwo district.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of this study are:
1. To investigate whether peer group affect the academic pertbrmance of adolescent.
2. To determine whether peer influence has any effect on academic performance of
children from broken homes.

3. To find out whether peer influence determines variation in academic performance

of male and female students.

4. To investigate whether age does determine the extent to which peer influence
affects academic performance of students.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following are the research questions that will guide this study.
1. Does peer group influence have great effect on the academic performance of
students?
2. Does peer influence have any effect on academic performance of children from
broken homes?

3. Does peer group influence have varying effects on academic performance of male and
female students?

4. Does age determine the extent of peer group influence on academic performance of
students?
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1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
This research work was carried out to examine critically the influence of peer group on the
academic performance in selected secondary schools is Bukwo district.

The importance of this study was to know whether peer group has any influence on the academic
performance of a child as well as making an effect to strike a balance in the educational system
in line with the national policy on education. This study provided an insight into the impact of
peer group on academic perf.Durnance of adolescents.

Information gathered tiom this work was pertinent and went a long way in unveiling the
influence of peer group on the academic performance of students.

1.6 CONCLUSION
In this chapter the study discussed the background of the study, statement of the problem of the
study, main objectives and specific objectives of the study, significance of the study, the research
questions, and scope of the study.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

This chapter reviewed the literature related to the study on the topic discussed under the various
study objectives, how peer group prior . - ichicvements influence student performance in
national examination, how peer group composition influence student performance in
national examination, how peer learning environment influence student performance in
national examination. A theoretical and conceptual Framework was used to operationalize
the variables and lastly the gaps in literature were summarized.

2.1 Peer group prior achievements and student academic performance

Schools seem often to be judged on the kind of children they enroll, rather than on the quality of
their teaching or the other facilities they offer. This observation has led many to argue that the
background and abilities of a pupil's school-mates must have an important influence on
his own achievements at school. Motivated by this, a rich international literature has evolved to
try to model and measure the consequences of social interactions between pupils — so called
`peer-group effects' — spanning the economics, education, sociological and psychological fields.

The issue is a critical one in respect of current educational policy which favors expansion
of school choice, because choice based on peer-group quality can, in theory at least, leads to a
high degree of sorting across schools along lines of prior ability Epple and Romano,2000).
This will exacerbate educational inequalities if peer-group quality has real impacts on
personal achievement. Understanding of peer effects is important because it can mean to
educational interventions

that appear beneficial to the individual pupil may be even more effective when rolled
out to the population (Glaeser, Sacerdote, 2003). Our paper extends the evidence base by
providing estimates of the influence of innovations to a pupil's peer-group at the time
when they transfer from Primary to Secondary schooling in England. The potential for peers
to affect individual achievement is central to many important policy issues in elementary and

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secondary education, including the impacts of school choice programs, ability tracking
within schools, "mainstreaming" of special education students, and racial and economic
desegregation. Vouchers, charter schools and other school choice programs may benefit
those who remain in traditional public schools by engendering competition that loads to
improvements in school quality, but may also harm those left behind by diminishing the quality
of their classmates (Epple and Romano 1998; Caucutt 2002). Grouping students in
classrooms by ability can likewise have significant imparts oil student achiew,mo n t,
depending on the maqnitude of peer influences (Epple, Newlon, and Romano
2002). The effect of desegregation policies on achievement depends not only on potential
spillovers from average ability, but on whether different peers exert different degrees of
influence on individual outcomes (Angrist and Lang 2004; Cooley 2007; Fryer and Torelli
2005).

Earlier analyses of peer effects were based on simple econometric models regressing
students outcomes on their own individual characteristics (measures of ability, family
background and so on) and on their peers' out conies or characteristics. As shown by Manski
(1993), this kind of regression is plagued by two main econometric problems, which raise doubts
about the causal interpretation of the coefficient measuring peer group effects. The first problem,
known as "self-selection" bias, depends on the fact that groups of peers are often not
exogenously determined, but individuals typically choose the other people they will
associate with. Therefore, the characteristics of each student contribute to determining the
choice of his peers and, if some of these characteristics are not observable, an endogeneity
problem arises.

2.2 Peer group composition and student academic performance

Peer groups are among the most influential social forces affecting adolescent behavior —
from mundane decisions concerning clothing, hairstyle, music, and entertainment, to more
significant decisions concerning short and long-term education plans. During the formative
adolescent years, peers are arguably even more important than parents, teachers, and
counselors, and the peer-influenced decisions of youth can have long-lasting consequences
(Coleman. 1966; Sewell, Haller and Portes 1969; Sewell, Haller and Ohlendorf 1970).

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Parents recognize the importance of peer groups and — through their choice of neighborhoods,
schools, and activities (Haynie, South and Bose 2006; Larcau 2003; Mouw and Ent isle
2006) — attempt to guide and direct their Children's friendship selections, which can be
increasingly challenging during adolescence. Regardless of socioeconomic status, parents
want their children to be surrounded by the best possible social networks, especially
during adolescence, when youth are increasingly independent from parents. During these
formative years, educational goals take rorm, and youth make a series of decisions that shape
their educational trajectories, even as their Friendship networks gain influence upon these
decisions. Unfortunately, the peer effects literature is lacking in two main areas. The first is that
peer effects are assumed to be uniform across class, gender, and race and ethnicity. Race and
ethnicity is especially likely to be important because adolescents are more likely to choose
friends of the same racial and ethnic group (Hamm, Brown and Heck 2005; Haynie, South and
Bose 2006; Quillian and Campbell 2003), introducing the possibility that peers have
differing effects by race and ethnicity. The second problem is that few studies focus on
academic decisions that are directly influenced by friends, such as course or track
selection and college choices. Instead, most studies of peer effects focus on educational
outcomes that are indirectly influenced by friends, such as early cognitive development,
grades, promotion, and, most commonly, test scores (Goux and Maurin 2007; Hanushek . 2003;
Henry and Rickman 2007; Fang 2007; Zimmerman 2003). Hanushek (2003) and others have
pointed out that If innovations to behaviour form an important avenue through which
peers affect outcomes, the inability to capture such behaviour might lead to a serious
underestimation of peer influences". Thus, behavior decisions may lie at the intersection
between peers and achievement — effectively acting as a mediator through which the influence
of peers passes prior to shaping student achievement. Peer-group effects are a distinct class
of influences arising from 'social interactions' — abroad term which encompasses any type
of individual behavior that involves interdependency with the behavior or characteristics of
others. Economists have long shown an interest [Becker (1974)1 but there has been a
rapid growth in the field since the 1990s with contributions in theory and empirical
work. Theoretical research seems motivated by a desire to widen the scope of economic
thought to encompass aspects of behavioral modeling more commonly attributed to
sociology and psychology. Empirical work —constrained by the data --is generally

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concerned with finding evidence for the existence of such effects, rather than the precise
pathways by which they occur. The term 'peer-groups' usually indicates social interactions of
children or young adults with people of similar age, rather than broader 'neighborhood' effects
or interactions with superiors, family or teachers. We continue to use the term in this way. The
range of outcomes that have interested researchers is diverse, including smoking.

Alexander(2001); Ellickson(2003), joke-telling Angeline and, Hirs -clarnan (2005), sexual

behavior &Avail and, Ross (2001), purchase of a retirement plan Duflo and Satz (2000) and
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more commonly education. On reflection, it seems very likely that many decisions are
linked to similar decisions by a friend or other associate (in same cases fairly explicitly, like the
decision to have sex, be in a gang or play tennis), and many consumption decisions rely on other
consumers participating (e.g. Video phones). However, the more interesting possibility is
that group behaviour or attributes can modify individual actions in relation to important
social and economic decisions that will affect their life chances — especially achievement in
education. Starting from the classical study of Colema.n(1966), a host of works have analysed the
effects of peer group on children's achievement and educational outcomes Betts and Morel',
(1999); Hoxby, (2000); Angrist and Lang (2004);Hanushek (2003) and on college students'
grades and choices of fields of study Sacerdote (2001); Zimmennan(2003); De Giorgi,Pellizzari
and Redaelli (2006); Foster (2006), but several problems and controversies are Still um -esolved.
Some of these studies show that peer effects are statistically and economically significant in a
variety of educational contexts and that students tend to perform better if the quality of their
peer group is higher. Ding and Lehrer (2006); Zimmerman (2003); Vandenberghe (2002);
Hoxby (2000); Sacerdote (2001); Zimmer and Toma (2000). Moreover, a number of these
studies show that peer effects are often non-linear, implying that students of middle
abilities are particularly affected by the negative influence of weak students Sacerdote
(2001); Zimmemian,(2003). However, the significance and size of peer effects often
changes in relation to the sample used. Other studies, in fact, find no significant (or minor)
peer effects Angrist and Lang (2004); Arcidiacono and Nicholson, (2005); Foster, (2006)

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2.3 Peer group learning environment and student academic performance

Students belonging to the same class tend to study and revise the subject together, so
generating important externalities. However, this kind of relationship does not develop between
all the members of a class, since, even though attending courses together, some students
may not interact with each other. In order to overcome this problem and build a peer group
measure (called Peer Exam) based on this type of interaction, which we believe particularly
relevant, we consider as members of the same aroup students who sit an exam on the same date.
Anecdotal evidence', suggests that students who study together tends to take exams together
(Coleman. 1966).

Educational economists have highlighted, in theoretical and empirical studies, the

relevance of peer group quality to student performance Epple and Romano,( 1998);
Hoxby, (2000). A peer group affects student achievement in several ways: members of a group
interact in learning, help each other in their studies, share important information, impose
externalities on others by behaving well or badly (for example, a noisy student disrupts the study
environment) or by allowing teachers to go deeper in subjects, contribute to the formation of
values and aspirations, and so on.

Understanding the nature and the magiitude of peer group effects in education is crucial
for the "productivity" of educational processes and the organizational design of school
systems. For example, in order to improve student outcomes, it is important to know which
inputs influence their performance most and the relative importance of peer effects
compared to other inputs, such as teacher quality or school resources.

If peer effects are at work, educational outcomes are affected by how students are arranged
across classes and the desirability of comprehensive schools (which mix students of
different abilities together) or stratified schools (which tend to aggregate students
according to their abilities) depends on the magnitude and non-linearity of peer effects.
Furthermore, the selectivity of university admission policies produces different results in
the presence of peer effects. More importantly, the nature of peer effects also has fundamental
implications in a family's choice with regards whether parents consider that their offspring
would benefit from schools which sort students according to their abilities (Foster, 2006).

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Apart from peer effects related to the classroom environment, students belonging to the
same class tend to study and revise the subject together, so generating important
externalities. Clearly friendly relationships do not involve all members of a class: some students
might attend course together, but their interaction might still be limited. We are able to address
this problem by considering a measure of peer group which weights peers in relation to the
number of exams taken together. In fact, students who continually do exams in the same session
as one another are often students who study together, sharing course material a n d f ;
We look at all the students passing an exam on the same date and we use this information to
define a second measure of peer group quality, which weights the abilities of each student
according to the number of exams taken together (Epple and Romano, 1998).

We are aware that these definitions may be affected by self-selection problems since students
choose other people to collaborate with in studying. In order to overcome possible self-
selection problems, we use Two-Stage Least Squares estimation and instrument peer -
groups through the random (and compulsory) assignment of students to different teaching
classes during their First Level Degree course (Foster, 2006). Their estimations show that peer
group abilities have considerable, positive effects on students' academic performance.
These effects are not brought about by self-selection and are robust to a variety of
definitions of peer group and several measures of abilities (Epple and Romano, 1998). In
our preferred Instrumental Variable specification, we find that an increase of one standard
deviation in peer group quality (measured as the average ability of students attending the
same course) produces an increase in student performance of 0.19 (the OLS estimates show a
smaller effect equal to 0.13). This is quite a large effect, since the effect produced by an
increase of one standard deviation in the student's own ability generates an increase of
0.54(Foster, 2006). Effects are slightly higher when we consider our second measure of peer
group quality, based on repeated interaction at exams, implying that this measure is able to take
into account some relevant interaction taking place among students. These results suggest that
student quality is an important input in tertiary education and that, in order to improve their
students' performance, colleges and university should attract high quality students. Our results
are consistent with selection policies adopted by many US universities aimed at admitting
only the best students. They also support the idea that students applying for highly reputable

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