CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

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. Variables of peer influence include the ethnicity of the students, the socio-economic background of the students, family relationships and group interests. During the adolescent years, peers are even considered more important than parents, guardians and teachers and the peer-influenced decisions of adolescents can have long-lasting consequences. Parents recognize the importance of peer groups and through their choice of neighborhoods, schools, and activities.

Peer effects in education are generally accepted to be of importance. Despite this assertion, there is no agreement on the direction of the effect peers have on one another. Different theories attempt to explain this and according to some of them the average ability of classmates has detrimental effect on one’s schooling outcomes while others imply that it enhances ones achievements (Marsh, 2005). Students could also be indirectly affected by their peers. This usually comes about through the way teachers react to different groups of students. One possible effect is that if students are sorted into classes based on their potential this might allow teachers to match instructions more closely to students needs because of more homogenous group, which would benefit all students. However, my primary purpose with this paper is to establish empirically the existence and direction of peer effects but not to distinguish the channels by which peer effects operate.

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