Academic, Psychological, and Behavioral Consequences of Extracurricular Activity Participation

Jennifer Fredricks

The after school hours are a time of both great risk and opportunity. High rates of family mobility, increases in parents’ work commitments, and the disorganization of many neighborhoods have helped to weaken the informal community supports once available to children and adolescents (Eccles & Gootman, 2001). Several scholars have argued that structured activities like sports, the arts, and enrichment programs can provide fertile contexts for positive development and may be especially important for students who are academically at-risk (Holland & Andre, 1987; Larson, 2000). However, compared to research on other development contexts, the research on activity involvement is limited. Several scholars have called for longitudinal studies that are comprehensive enough to allow for the modeling of self-selection factors and the examination of the mediating and moderating processes involved in activity participation and development (Holland & Andre, 1987; Larson, 2000). Few such studies exist. In this project, I plan to expand this knowledge base by conducting secondary data analysis on two longitudinal studies that are uniquely suited to study the correlates and consequences of activity involvement in childhood and adolescence. My project has several aims including: • Document the correlates of extracurricular participation in middle childhood and adolescence across a range of voluntary structured activities; • Investigate the academic, psychological, and behavioral benefits and risks associated with participation in extracurricular activities in middle childhood and adolescence; • Explore the process by which activity participation influences development. Investigate how these processes vary as a function of gender, race, socioeconomic status, age, type of activity, and level of involvement.

About Jennifer Fredricks

Jennifer A. Fredricks is currently an assistant professor in Human Development at Connecticut College, where she teaches courses in Human Development and Social Policy. She received her masters in Developmental Psychology and her Ph.D. in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan. She was a postdoctoral fellow for the MacArthur Network for Successful Pathways Through Middle Childhood and is currently an affiliate of the Gender and Achievement Research Program at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include extracurricular participation, motivation, school engagement, gender-role socialization, and school reform. She has published in Developmental Psychology, Journal of Adolescent Research, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, and Journal of Learning Sciences.