International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Reviews Vol.4 No.1, May., 2013; p.89 – 96 (ISSN: 2276-8645) 89 IMPACT OF NEIGHBORHOOD, AND PEER PRESSURE ON ADOLESCENTS DELINQUENT BEHAVIOUR IN IBADAN METROPOLIS By AJIBOYE ISAAC OYELEKE Social Work Programme Department of Behavioural Studies College of Management Sciences Redeemer’s University, Mowe, Ogun State, Nigeria. Isaac_oyeleke@yahoo.com +2348066690282 Abstract This study addressed the relationship between neighbourhood, peer group influence and adolescent delinquency among secondary students in Ibadan metropolis. Using data from primary source collected through” Adolescent Delinquent Behaviour Questionnaire (ADBQ)” developed by Ma and Leung (1991) and Ma, Shek, Cheung and Lee (1996), The findings of the study revealed that neighborhood was significantly related to adolescent delinquent behaviour, peer group influence was also significant related to adolescent delinquent behavior. On the basis of these findings that the researcher recommended that governments (the Federal, State and Local government) should make the environment more friendly to the adolescent by making sure that such building as hotels, beer parlous are not located around school and residential places. Also both the parents and teachers in the school should also assist to monitor the activities of adolescent both in and outside the school in other to check the influence of peers on the adolescent and to correct them when they go astray. Keywords: Neighborhood, Peer group influence, Delinquency Introduction Adolescence is a developmental transition between childhood and adulthood. It is generally considered to begin about age 12 or 13 and ends in the late teens or twenties. It should be noted however, that the physical basis for adolescence has actually begun long before the ages and its psychological ramifications may continue long after. More importantly, a central question that adolescents usually ask is “who am I?. In other words, adolescents try to identify what differentiate them from significant others. The question of who they are and what they will amount to actually begins right from infancy, when babies first discover that they are separate from their mothers. Children begin to find answer to the questions of who am I and what will I become? As they learn the boundaries of self, shed much of their egocentric thinking, and size up; their skill and values in the mirror of their peer group (Papalia & Olds, 1992). This question of self- identity attains its peak during adolescence when physical, cognitive, social and emotional development also reaches its peak. For instant, at the age of fifteen, most girls have the body of a woman with the capability to engage in the adult sexual behaviour. A girl knows she will soon be responsible for her own life and will have to make choices such as how to make life, the kind of work to do, decisions about sexual relationship and other relationships, and they are often accompanied by emotional confusion and conflict. Male adolescents also experience similar trends in their course of development. They become uncomfortable with the ties that bind them to an older generation, they often sees mothers and fathers as inhibiting more than helpful. Yet while teenagers look up to their peers as companions in their struggle for independence, they will still turn to their parents for important guidance and emotional support (Papalia & Olds, 1992, Osinowo & Folarin, 1989).