Abstract
The study examined the influence of peer groups based on socio-economic factors on academic performance of students in junior secondary school in Port Harcourt Metropolis. Three objectives of the study, research questions and hypotheses guided the study. The research design adopted was descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised 54,102 students in Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt Local Government Areas of Rivers State. The sample size of the study was 400 students. There were 180 male students and 220 female students. This was selected using the simple random sampling technique. Self-Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was validated using 2 experts in Guidance and Counselling and Measurement and Evaluation. The study adopted mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while z-test statistics was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings indicated that gender, school type, study habit, parental income and parental level of education have significant influence on the academic performance of junior secondary school students in Port Harcourt Metropolis. Based on the findings of the study, it was therefore recommended that government and non-governmental organization should organize seminar programmes for the students on how to avoid peer group influence based on gender, school management, through the counsellor should always counsel the students on how to avoid peer group influence based on school type and government and non-governmental organization should organize awareness and seminar programmes for the students on the dangers of peer group influence based on students’ study habit.