NCJ Number
202823
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 32 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2003 Pages: 453-463
Editor(s)
Daniel Offer
Date Published
December 2003
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This exploratory study focused on examining the correlates of youth out-of-school activities that occur in structured contexts.
Abstract
Parents, teachers, and human services professionals are interested in how youth use their time. However, there is little research that has focused on what predicts time use as it relates to youths. This exploratory study examined predictors of adolescent participation in structured out-of-school activities, various types of structured out-of-school time use, and their correlates. Correlates were explored in four types of structured activities: volunteering, extracurricular activities, clubs, and religious organizations. Data were drawn from a previous study composed of almost all students in grades 9 through 12 in two rural, ethnically diverse high schools in a rural Southeastern State. Across the 2 schools, 509 students completed a 169-item comprehensive survey with the analyses based on African-American and European American youth. The survey included attitudes, behaviors, values, worries, and hopes of young people. Results indicate that a variety of factors are related to adolescents’ participation in structured out-of-school time activities and that these factors are drawn from a variety of ecological niches. In addition, these factors vary according to the specific type of extracurricular activity chosen. Socioeconomic status, parental monitoring of activities, school grade level, and family structure predicts time spent in volunteering; time spent in religious-related activities was predicted by ethnicity, family structure, friend endorsement, and gender. For the most part, the findings are consonant with the literature that informed the present study. Future research is recommended in documenting the relationship context in which activities occur. References