Shannon Gadbois
-SRG 2008
Bowker, A., Rose-Krasnor, L., Findlay, L.
Français
In the first two years of a research project on extracurricular activities (ECA) participation , our research shows differences in level of ECA participation and ECA type based on gender, age, and location (rural vs. urban) of youth. Organized sport involvement was the most frequent structured ECA type, and was also most strongly related to positive developmental outcomes. Year 3 involves structured interviews with participants from the first two years of the study in order to more closely examine the specific types of positive developmental experiences that youth report with respect to their most engaging activities. A total of 32 youth between the ages of 12 and 19 were drawn from the larger sample of 500 youth from year 2 and participated in an interview regarding the activity in which they were most engaged. 16 (9 female; 7 male) youth were most engaged in structured sports, 5(3 female; 2 male) youth were most engaged in structured non-sports (e.g., piano, girl guides), and 11 (5 female; 6 male) youth were most engaged in unstructured activities (e.g., drawing, hanging out with friends). Though it was expected that organized sports would provide the most positive outcomes, preliminary analyses of the interviews showed that all three groups reported opportunities to take on a leadership role, to cooperate and face challenges, to work independently and take initiative, and to plan, feel good about themselves, and to develop skills in their most engaging activity. Also, whether participating in structured or unstructured activities, all youth reported learning some life lessons from their participation. Furthermore, across all three groups many of these lessons emphasized that youth learned about the importance of persistence and being able to work with others. These preliminary results indicate that a range of different ECAs lead to positive experiences for youth.
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