What are Youth Doing in Their Leisure Time?: Group Differences and Stability in Participation
from Middle School through the Transition into Adulthood.
Nicole Zarrett and Sandra Simpkins, University of Michigan
Background
There is increasing evidence that youth’s participation in challenging out-of-school activities
influences their behavioral, emotional, and academic adjustment. Participation in out-of-school
organized activities is associated with declines in school dropout, reduced rates of criminal
offending, lower rates of substance abuse, interpersonal competence, quality relationships with
peers, self-concept, high school GPA, and school engagement (Eccles & Barber, 1999; Eccles &
Gootman, 2002; Eccles & Templeton, 2002; Holland & Andre, 1987; Mahoney, 2000; Simpkins,
Fredricks, Davis-Kean, & Eccles, under review; Youniss, McLellan, & Yates, 1999).
Together, these studies provide convincing evidence that participating in out-of-school activities
is associated with indicators of positive development. However, they tell us less about the
developmental pattern of activity participation and the characteristics of youth participating. With
the exception of the extensive work on gender differences in sports, little systematic research has
focused on activity participation across time, various ages, transitions, and groups.
Existing research suggest the following hypothesis regarding both developmental changes and
demographic differences: poor and ethnic minority youth will be less involved in structured, adultsanctioned activities than middle class White youth (Furstenberg, Cook, Eccles, Elder, & Sameroff,
1999); participation in such activities will decline with age, particularly as children move into
adolescence (Eccles & Gootman, 2002); girls will be less involved in sports than boys (Duda, 1995;
Jacobs et al. 2002). This investigation extends this work by examining youth’s participation in a
variety of activities from 7th grade through 3 years post high school. In addition, we focus on group
differences in youth’s participation in these activities. Specifically, our study aims are:
(1) Describe youth’s activity participation across adolescence and early adulthood
(2) Examine the stability of youth’s participation
(3) Test gender and race differences in youth’s participation
Method
The Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study
(P.I. Jacquelynne Eccles and Arnold Sameroff)
Sample
 1,400 adolescents and their families
o 61% African American; 35% European American
o 49% female
o Median annual income = 42,500-52,500
Data


Longitudinal data were collected at 6 time points: the beginning of 7th grade (1991), in the
summer and early fall following the 7th, 8th, and 11th grades and then 1 and 3 years post high
school
Youth reported on their participation in a variety of activities at each time point:
o At 7th grade, 8th, and 11th grade:

Frequently occurring activities (e.g., TV viewing, reading, art) were
measured with
 How often they spent time on the following activities during the last
one/two weeks (1=never, 6=daily, more than an hour)
 Less frequently occurring activities (e.g., religious activities, community
groups) were measured with
 If they spent time on the following activities during the last 6 months
or during the last year? (1=yes, 0 = no).
o At 1 and 3 years post high school, youth reported:
 How often they spent time on the following activities during a usual week (1
= none, 4 = 4-6 hours, 8 = 21 or more hours)
 Civil rights (a less frequent activity) was measured on a scale of: “the past
two years” (0=never, 3=four to five times, 5=more than ten times).
o Continuous items were recoded so that any time youth reported spending time on the
activity it was considered active participation in the activity
Results
Hypothesis 1: Activity participation was fairly stable over time for Television, Social, Religion
and Reading (see Figure 1). For the remaining activities, participation varies between waves,
with a decline in participation for most activities (except work and civil rights) when youth are 3
years post high school. Participation declines later than what was reported in previous research.
Hypothesis 2: Findings indicate stability of adolescents’ participation over time (See Figure 2).
Youth are more likely to participate in an activity domain in late adolescence and early
adulthood if they began participating in 7th grade. For example, of the 10% of young adults
participating in formal sports in Wave 6, 41% of them were participating in 7th grade (Wave 1).
Hypothesis 3: Group differences of participation by the intersection of gender and race were
found for the following activities: Formal and Informal Sports, Music, Art, Community Service
and Reading (see Table 1).
Discussion
3 Main Implications:
- Future research needs to address reasons for declines in activity involvement during the
transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Likewise, it is necessary to identify
methods/resources that would encourage youth to persist in an activity beyond high school
- Findings indicate the importance of early participation on later participation in activities. Based
on the positive indications of activity involvement, possible intervention programs to get children
involved in activities early in life would promote children’s current and later well being.
- The current investigation points to the importance of considering the intersection of race and sex
when examining the trajectories of youths’ activity participation.
References
Duda, J. L. (1995). Motivation in sports settings: A goal perspective approach. In G.C., Roberts
(Ed.), Motivation in sport and exercise: Vol. XII, 273, (pp. 57-91). Champaign, IL: Human
Kinetics Books.
Eccles, J. & Barber, B. (1999). Student council, volunteering, basketball, or marching band: What
kind of extracurricular involvement matters? Journal of Adolescent Research, 14, 10-43.
Eccles. J. S. & Gootman, J. (Eds) (2002). Community programs to promote youth development.
Washington DC: National Academy Press.
Eccles, J.S., & Templeton, J. (2002). Extracurricular and other after-school activities for youth.
Review of Research in Education, 26, 113-180.
Furstenberg, F.F., Jr., Cook, T.D., Eccles, J., Elder, G.H., Jr., & Sameroff, A. (1999). Managing to
make it: Urban families and adolescent success. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press.
Holland, A., & Andre, T. (1987). Participation in extracurricular activities in secondary school:
What is known, what needs to be known? Review of Educational Research, 57, 437-466.
Jacobs, J. E., Lanza, S., Osgood, D. W., Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Changes in children's
self-competence and values: Gender and domain differences across grades one through
twelve. Child Development, 73(2), 509-527.
Mahoney, J.L. (2000). School extracurricular activity participation as a moderator in the
development of antisocial patterns. Child Development, 71, 502-516.
Simpkins, S.D., Fredricks, J., Davis-Kean, P., & Eccles, J.S. (under review). Healthy minds, healthy
habits: The influence of activity involvement in middle childhood. A. Huston and M. Ripke
(Eds.) Middle Childhood: Contexts of Development. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Youniss, J., McLellan, J. A. & Yates, M. (1999). Religion, community service, and identity in
American youth. Journal of Adolescence, 22, 243-253.
Figure 1
The Percent of Youth Participating in Various Activities
100
Formal Sports
Percent of Youth Participating
90
Informal Sports
80
Religious
70
Music
60
Art
50
Community
40
Social
TV
30
Civil Rights
20
Reading
10
Work
0
13
13Sum.
14
17
Age in years
19
22
Figure 2
Stability of Participation from Wave 1 to Wave 4 and from Wave 1 to Wave 6
3.0
90
2.0
Percentage of youth participating at both waves
80
4.6
70
60
1.0
2.4
50
W1 to W4
3.0
8.8
W1 to W6
40
4.6
30
20
10
0
Sports
Music
Community
Reading
**Adjusted standardized residuals indicated above each bar
Table 1
Group Differences in Activity Participation by Race and Sex
Activities
Formal Sports
Percentage Within:
Black Males
White Males
Black Females
White Females
Wave 1
18.76**
Wave 2
23.20***
Wave 3
16.27**
Wave 4
15.11**
Wave 5
82.54***
Wave 6
60.59***
87.2
93.1
71.1
92.3
29.6
28.0
17.7
15.7
35
36.1
23.3
23.9
43.4
51.6
33.7
40.6
66.9
56.4
28.4
29.8
54.8
50.7
19.7
20.1
Music
Percentage Within:
Black Males
White Males
Black Females
White Females
ns
ns
12.79**
9.31*
32.60***
12.01*
36.1
35.4
36.9
43
23.1
24.4
28.1
31
32
36.1
43.2
45.7
16.7
26.4
25.4
21.1
29
29.1
10
16.7
25.2
23.2
11.1
16.9
Community Service
Percentage Within:
Black Males
White Males
Black Females
White Females
37.94***
29.66***
33.51***
32.26***
ns
ns
34.2
51.1
37.8
54.7
22.4
40.4
29.5
39.9
30.5
48.7
33.2
52.3
48.7
63.5
69.6
66.3
54.1
50.6
45.3
51.7
50
41.5
47
44.9
Reading
Percentage Within:
Black Males
White Males
Black Females
White Females
11.19*
9.81*
17.36**
ns
ns
88.3
89.7
91.5
95.8
83.1
86.5
87.7
92.3
80.4
90.5
90.4
88.9
77.4
76.4
83.1
82.7
77.1
77.9
84.5
84.6
(3, N=1474)
(3, N=1186)
(3, N=1056)
(3, N=781)
(3, N=573)
(df, N)
(3, N=1059)