Abstract
There is a growing concern that some youth are overscheduled in extracurricular activities, and that this increasing involvement has negative consequences for youth functioning. This article used data from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS: 2002), a nationally representative and ethnically diverse longitudinal sample of American high school students, to evaluate this hypothesis (N = 13,130; 50.4% female). On average, 10th graders participated in between 2 and 3 extracurricular activities, for an average of 5 h per week. Only a small percentage of 10th graders reported participating in extracurricular activities at high levels. Moreover, a large percentage of the sample reported no involvement in school-based extracurricular contexts in the after-school hours. Controlling for some demographic factors, prior achievement, and school size, the breadth (i.e., number of extracurricular activities) and the intensity (i.e., time in extracurricular activities) of participation at 10th grade were positively associated with math achievement test scores, grades, and educational expectations at 12th grade. Breadth and intensity of participation at 10th grade also predicted educational status at 2 years post high school. In addition, the non-linear function was significant. At higher breadth and intensity, the academic adjustment of youth declined. Implications of the findings for the over-scheduling hypothesis are discussed.
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Notes
This is the mean total number of activities for the full range of activities (0–24). The mean number of activities is slightly lower for the 10-activity cap measure (M = 2.55, SD = 2.34).
Figure 1 presents the means by breadth of participation at 10th grade for youth who had average grade point average at 10th grade, had parents with average levels of education, and had families with average income.
Figure 2 presents the means by intensity of participation at 10th grade for youth who had average grade point average at 10th grade, had parents with average levels of education, and had families with average income.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a grant from the American Educational Research Association which receives funds for its “AERA Grants Program” from the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Education Statistics of the Institute of Education Sciences (US Department of Education) under NSF Grant #DRL-0634035. A special thanks to Amy Bohnert for helpful comments on a previous version of this manuscript.
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Fredricks, J.A. Extracurricular Participation and Academic Outcomes: Testing the Over-Scheduling Hypothesis. J Youth Adolescence 41, 295–306 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9704-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9704-0