Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Students who participate in extracurricular activities in middle school exhibit higher levels of academic motivation and achievement, including graduation from high school.
However, the mechanisms responsible for these beneficial effects are poorly understood. Using weighted propensity score analyses to control for potential confounders, results of longitudinal SEM found indirect effect of participation in sports, but not of participation in performance arts and clubs, on grade 9 outcomes noted above.
Implications of findings for improving educational attainment of at-risk youth are discussed. The substantial percentage of students who leave school without a high school diploma is a major concern for educators, policy-makers, and society at large. However, there is a dearth of research on the mechanisms responsible for the beneficial effects of extracurricular participation on academic outcomes. An understanding of processes that account for beneficial effects of participation would permit more focused efforts to enhance these effects.
Participation in extracurricular activities is common among adolescents in the United States. Extracurricular activities include a wide range of specific activities, including team and individual sports, drama, music, student government, and academic clubs. Based on the premise that school-sponsored activities are more likely than community-sponsored activities to promote identification with school and its values and norms, including achievement Finn, , the current study focuses on participation in school-sponsored activities.
Importantly, the study uses propensity score analyses to equate participant and non-participant groups on a comprehensive set of variables measured prior to participation, thereby reducing potential confounders. That is, youth both gravitate toward peers whom they perceive as similar to them and as sharing their values and goals selection effects , and become more similar to their friends over time socialization effects.
