INFLUENCE OF PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL BOYS IN KENYA: THE CASE OF BUNGOMA EAST SUBCOUNTY

Abstract

Education plays an important role in the lives of students. The performance in national examinations is crucial as it determines the future careers of learners. This study sought to investigate the influence of psychosocial factors including peer pressure, social economic status and social media on the academic performance of boys in secondary school in Bungoma East (presently Bungoma East and Webuye West subcounties). The performance of secondary school boys in Bungoma East subcounty at KCSE was noted to be lower than that of girls from 2011 to 2014. Purposive sampling was used to select boys’ secondary schools in Bungoma East. Six boy’s secondary schools in the subcounty formed part of the sample. Random sampling was used to get a sample of respondents from the boy’s secondary schools. Two theories were used in this study - Social Development Theory by Lev Vygotsky and Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura. Questionnaires were given to 198 students to collect data and a document search guide was used to collect performance of students in the mid-year exams, 2016. Internal consistency technique was used to estimate the reliability of the instrument while expert judgment was used to determine validity of the instruments. The study utilized a descriptive survey research design as it sought to describe and establish the association among the key study variables (Mugenda & Mugenda, 2008). The study used multiple linear regression to analyze the data with the aid of SPSS version 20. The data collected was presented using figures and tables. The study results showed that peer pressure does not have a significant influence on the academic performance of secondary school boys in Bungoma East subcounty(β=0.02, p=0.113), social economic status has a significant influence on the academic performance of secondary school boys in Bungoma East subcounty(β=.332, p=0.014) and that social media has a significant influence on the academic performance of secondary school boys in Bungoma East subcounty (β=0.120, p=0.030). The study therefore concluded that social economic status was found to have a more significant influence on academic performance over social media. Therefore, in addressing the gap in academic performance between boys and girls in secondary schools in Bungoma East subcounty, the stakeholders should address the social economic status of the parents followed by the students’ use of social media.