Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Organized Afterâ•’School Activities: Taking a Closer Look at Participation of Ethnic Minority Youth

Youth participation in organized after-school activities provides opportunities for positive growth and development. Unfortunately, ethnic minority youth, especially those living in low-income communities, participate in these activities at lower rates and less consistently than nonminority youth. This article reviews the research on the academic, psychological, and behavioral outcomes of participation in organized activities for African American and Latino youth. Second, it highlights individual and contextual factors associated with these youth’s initial and ongoing participation. It concludes by outlining the gaps in the literature on ethnic minority youth and articulates areas that require additional theory and research. KEYWORDS—extracurricular activities; after-school programs; ethnic minority youth The growth in numbers of single-parent and dual-earner families has left millions of children unsupervised after school. Research has illustrated the increased risk behaviors and poorer outcomes for youth who spend this time in unstructured and unsupervised settings (Newman, Fox, Flynn, & Christeson, 2000; Pettit, Bates, Dodge, & Meece, 1999). There is a growing interest in the potential of participation in organized after-school activities to promote positive youth development (PYD; e.g., Mahoney, Larson, & Eccles, 2005). Organized activities include a range of adultsponsored activities that fall outside of the regular school curriculum and include school-based extracurricular activities Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jennifer A. Fredricks, Connecticut College, 270 Mohegan Ave., Box 5223, New London, CT 06320; e-mail: [email protected]. a 2011 The Authors Child Development Perspectives a 2011 The Society for Research in Child Development DOI: 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00206.x Volume 6, Number 3, 2 including sports, arts, and school clubs; community-based youth programs like the YMCA and Boys and Girls Clubs; and afterschool programs outside of schools. There have been significant increases in government and foundation funding to support organized activities in low-income areas and low-performing schools (Pittman, Tolman, & Yohalem, 2005). The after-school hours are ideal for providing students with support for youth development and access to experiences that they often lack during the school day (Khane et al., 2001). Many aspects of organized activities are linked to PYD, including physical and psychological safety, supervision and guidance by unrelated adults, contact with prosocial peers, support for efficacy, and opportunities for skill building (Eccles & Gootman, 2002; Larson, 2000). Participation in organized activities, especially those with an academic focus, can also supplement learning during school and provide targeted assistance to students who need more help than they can receive in the classroom or at home (Halpern, 1999). Several recent reviews address whether participation in organized activities is associated with positive adjustment (e.g., Bohnert, Fredricks, & Randall, 2010; Mahoney, Vandell, Simpkins, & Zarrett, 2009). These authors summarize whether the outcomes associated with participation varied along several key aspects, such as level of participation and type of organized activity. However, they did not critically examine activity participation for ethnic minority youth. In fact, ethnic minority youth have been understudied in the organized activity literature as a whole. Furthermore, very few international studies exist on children’s organized activity participation, and much of this work has focused on White youth and has not taken a cultural perspective (e.g., Blomfield & Barber, 2009; Busseri, Rose-Krasnor, Willoughby, & Chalmers, 2006; Denault & Poulin, 2009). Thus, our goal is to critically review the research on organized activities for African American and Latino youth in the United States by describing the evidence that these activities promote PYD,