Title

Extracurricular Activities and Disadvantaged Youth: A Complicated - But Promising - Story

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Ryan D. Heath, Syracuse University School of Social WorkFollow
Charity Anderson, Rutgers University - Newark
Charles M. Payne, Rutgers University - Newark
Ashley Cureton Turner, University of Chicago

ORCID

Ryan D. Heath: 0000-0002-1656-018X

Document Type

Article

Date

2018

Keywords

extracurricular activities, out-of-school time, afterschool programs, disadvantaged youth, youth development, community schools, extended learning time

Language

English

Funder(s)

Spencer Foundation, Sebring-Lewis Foundation

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Karen Pittman for her very helpful feedback on a previous draft of this manuscript.

This work was supported in part by the Spencer Foundation and the Sebring-Lewis Foundation.

Disciplines

Developmental Psychology | Development Studies | Education | Educational Sociology | Psychology | Social Work | Sociology

Description/Abstract

Increased political and research interest in extracurricular activities stems, in part, from the claim that these programs especially benefit disadvantaged youth. However, little literature has synthesized studies across types of disadvantage to assess this claim. This article reviews research on disadvantaged youth in extracurricular programs, including differences by gender, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and immigrant status. Our review reveals a promising, if complicated, picture. Although disadvantaged youth are less likely to participate in extracurricular activities, they often experience greater benefits, depending on the risk status and activity type. Evidence clearly supports expanding access to extracurricular programs for disadvantaged youth.

Additional Information

This document is the authors’ Accepted Manuscript, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Urban Education. The Final Published manuscript is available from the publisher, SAGE Journals.

The full citation to the article is listed here:

Heath, R. D., Anderson, C., Turner, A. C., & Payne, C. M. (2018). Extracurricular Activities and Disadvantaged Youth: A Complicated—But Promising—Story. Urban Education, 1-35. DOI: 10.1177/0042085918805797

Recommended Citation

Heath, R. D., Anderson, C., Turner, A. C., & Payne, C. M. (2018). Extracurricular Activities and Disadvantaged Youth: A Complicated—But Promising—Story. Urban Education, 1-35. DOI: 10.1177/0042085918805797

Source

Author

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.