Peer Group Influence and Occupational Choice of Students in Some Selected Senior Secondary Schools in Sokoto Metropolis, Sokoto State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between peer group influence and occupational choice of students in some selected senior secondary schools in Sokoto Metropolis. A descriptive correlational research of the correlational type was adopted in this study. Purposive sampling procedure was used to select 8 out of the 21 Senior Secondary Schools in Sokoto Metropolis. 346 students were selected using Research Advisor table of determining sample size in a given population. Two instruments were used for data collection in this study namely: Researchers’ designed Occupational Peer Influence Questionnaire (OPIQ) to measure students’ occupational peer influence and Adopted version of Bakare Motivation for Occupation Preference Scale (MOPS) to measure students’ career aspirations. The data was analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation ‘r’ Analysis with the use of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0. The result showed that there was a significant relationship between peer group influence and occupational choice of respondents. Based on this finding, it was recommended that school counsellors and teachers should try and encourage students to seek information on occupational choice rather than parading peer advice and also sufficient information on occupation should be made available to students.

Keywords: Peer Group Influence, Occupational Choice and Sokoto Metropolis.