Can Extracurricular Activities Keep Kids Out of Trouble?

by Tom Rose

I recently wrote a blog entitled Keeping Kids Out of Jail which led into an entire series including the Troubling Trend of Elementary School Arrests and finally to the Wyoming School Safety Issues That Every Citizen Should Know series. This week we return to the consideration of what can be done preventatively to keep our children on-track and out of trouble.

According to an online article from the Global Post, "…the more a kid involves himself in his school and community, the less time he spends getting into trouble." The article goes on to state: "Since kids begin to form their own decisions about right and wrong between the ages of nine and sixteen, the more adult guidance they have during this time, the better. Participation in after-school programs enriches kids and strengthens their self-esteem, making it easier for them to resist dangerous temptations."

A study from DuPage College entitled Positive Effects of Extra Curricular Activities on Students "…describes the role of extracurricular activities and the positive effects that they can have on students of all kinds ranging from the above average student to the student that is on the brink of dropping out of school."

In this blog we will consider the DuPage College research findings. Also in this series we will corroborate the DuPage research results with other research-based assessments of the positive effects of extracurricular activities with particular focus on the benefits for at-risk youth. Later in this series we will look specifically at extracurricular activities in Wyoming schools and potential opportunities for making positive changes for Wyoming youth.

The DuPage report has an interesting and well-referenced section with a brief history of extracurricular activities in U.S. schools. For the purposes of discussion we will be considering extracurricular activities to include athletics, clubs, vocational and recreational activities that typically take place outside of the context of regularly scheduled classroom learning. Extracurricular activities are generally voluntary activities and frequently participation in organized extracurricular activities requires a certain level of positive performance in class attendance, maintenance of grade performance levels and absence of bad behavior.

The DuPage article strongly advocates in favor of keeping behavior and educational performance requirements such as No Pass No Play laws of Texas and widespread restrictions for drug and alcohol use, particularly for school athletes. "Education world states that "Participation in school activities, especially athletics, leads to higher self-esteem and enhanced status among peers, which some argue is deterrent to antisocial behavior."^[i] With this enhanced self-esteem and status among peers, student athletes are more likely to choose to stay away from the antisocial behaviors that would interfere with their newly gained peer status.

The research makes it clear that "The most dangerous time for bad behavior is the time after school and before parents get home, which is usually the time between three o'clock and seven o'clock."^[ii] However, test programs which simply kept children occupied during this time period without extracurricular activities did not appear to have the same beneficial effects. "Participation in an after school program that is designed to build self-esteem, had positive effects on standards test scores in math and reading, while receiving extended time to complete homework did not have the same positive effects on self-esteem or achievements". ^[iii]

Another positive benefit of participation in extracurricular activities is the peer or social aspect. Beyond simply elevating the participating student's social status, participation in extracurricular activities puts youth among other peers who are also positively incentivized to stay out of trouble and use their after school time productively.

According to a 2012 article by the Huffington Post, Wyoming was one of only a handful of states that did not cut funding for extracurricular activities in reaction to sweeping budgetary shortfalls stemming from the 2008 recession. This good news was limited by the report within the same article indicating that Wyoming cut overall per-student expenditures at the tenth-highest level in the country.

Rather than focusing on the expenditure of millions of dollars to implement the school security recommendations of the Wyoming School Safety and Security Task Force, perhaps we should allocate that money to extracurricular activities and prevent the disenfranchisement of our youth in the first place.

[i]Brown, M. D. (2000). Science or soccer? -- how important are extracurricular activities? Education World website: http://www.educationworld.com.

[ii]Holloway, J. H. (2002, September). Extracurricular activities and student motivation. ASCD website: http://www.ascd.org.

[iii]Cosden, M., Morrison, G., Gutierrez, L., & Brown, M. (2004, August). The effects of homework programs and after-school activities on school success. Theory into Practice , v43, n3(0040-5841), 220-226.