ISSN 2360-7963
Abstract
Adolescence is a stage during which individuals tend to be highly concerned with their social status in groups. Adolescents may desire to be popular among their peers but at the same time concentrate on their academic performance. This study sought to determine the influence of internal factors of adolescents’ popularity on academic performance among students in selected public secondary schools in Baringo North sub-county, Kenya. The study was guided by goal-framing theory, applying the ex post facto design. Purposive, proportionate and simple random techniques were used to obtain the sample. The target population was 8694 secondary school students, out of which 383 were sampled. Data was generated by using students’ questionnaires whose reliability was established to be 0.770. The study employed both descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression analysis were conducted at a significant level of α = 0.05. Data analysis was done with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. The study established that internal factors of adolescents’ popularity had a positive significant influence on the academic performance of students in secondary schools in Baringo North Sub-County with correlation coefficients of (r = 0.547, p < 0.05). The study recommends that, as a matter of urgency, guidance and counselling be a critical requirement for adolescent students to mitigate against popularity's negative effects on academic performance.
Keywords. Adolescent, Internal factors, Popularity, Academic Performance, Kenya