Adolescent Extracurricular Involvement: Examining Differences in Racially Diverse Schools

Research on adolescent participation in school based extra-curricular activities has been found to be positively related to adolescent outcomes. Other research findings are not consistent with this idea and instead show adolescent involvement in extra-curricular activities to be correlated with increased substance use (Farb & Matjasko, 2012). However, few studies have examined the moderating effects of race and gender on involvement. This study examines the effects of race and gender on adolescent involvement in extra-curricular activities within twelve racially diverse schools in an urban Midwestern city. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the data using racial composition of schools as a second level variable to examine its effects on the likelihood of being involved in extra-curricular activities. Our results indicate that being black and male was significantly related to involvement in extra-curricular activities (β=.861, t=4.360, p<.001; β=.610, t=-4.679, p<.001, respectively). Other variables included in our model are additional racial/ethnic groups (dummy coded), adolescent perceptions of whether or not their parents know what they think and feel and feeling important to parents. Regardless of adolescents’ race, the racial composition of schools did not have a significant moderating effect on whether or not adolescents reported being involved in extra-curricular activities.