Since research on factors that predict youths' involvement in organized activities is limited, despite associations with positive outcomes, this study examined how characteristics of parents (supervision, warmth) and neighborhoods (perceived neighborhood safety and collective efficacy) predict patterns of adolescents' involvement in organized activities concurrently (i.e., intensity) and longitudinally (i.e., type and breadth).
The study used data from 1,043 youth (49 percent female; 46.4 percent Hispanic, 35.4 percent African American, 14.0 percent Caucasian, and 4.2 percent other) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. The study found that parental supervision predicted adolescents' participation in organized activities across multiple waves. Neighborhood violence was positively associated with concurrent participation in organized activities after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES), whereas higher neighborhood collective efficacy predicted greater breadth in organized activity participation across time. These findings have important implications regarding how to attract and sustain organized activity participation for low-income, urban youth. (publisher abstract modified)