Study of Predictors of Participation in Out-of-School Time Activities
Project Description
Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) has received a 2-year grant, beginning
in November 2004, from the William
T. Grant Foundation to support a quantitative study of the individual and
contextual predictors of participation in out-of-school time (OST) activities.
Why Learning About Participation Is Important
For several years, HFRP has been helping practitioners, researchers, and policymakers
grapple with the complex issues of providing high quality nonschool-hour services
to young people. One key issue that has emerged for all stakeholders is youth
participation in OST programs. Practitioners want to know how to attract and
sustain participation to maximize the potential benefits to those participating.
OST funders also are invested in understanding how to measure participation
in more meaningful ways. With scarce resources, policymakers want to know how
much participation is enough to improve youth outcomes.
These issues are especially salient for youth who are at risk for social and
academic problems. Although these youth are often targeted by community programs
and are the ones who can reap the largest benefits from participating in OST
activities (e.g., Mahoney, 2000; Roeser & Peck, 2003), they are the least
likely to participate (Furstenberg, Cook, Eccles & Elder, 1998). There is
evidence to suggest that once youth are engaged in OST activities of sufficient
quality for an ample amount of time, they experience measurable positive effects.
Yet, there is little information, especially for youth at risk, about the factors
that contribute to getting youth “in the door” and keeping them engaged—a
critical missing link in our understanding of participation and its association
to outcomes.
Goals of the Study
Our previous work on participation, including papers on attracting
and sustaining youth participation and measuring
attendance, coupled with our regular contact with key people and organizations
that cut across OST stakeholder groups, positions us well to tackle issues of
participation (Lauver, Little & Weiss, 2004; Simpkins, Little & Weiss,
2004). Therefore, in alignment with W. T. Grant's commitment to youth development
through investments in high quality research, we are conducting a quantitative
research project coupled with a strong strategic communications plan aimed at
examining and communicating information about the predictors of children's participation
in OST activities.
Specifically, we are examining the following questions:
- What are the child, family, school, and neighborhood predictors of participation?
In particular, are disadvantaged youth less likely to have access to or participate
in out-of-school time activities?
- How do child, family, school, and neighborhood characteristics interact
to predict participation in out-of-school activities? (I.e., what are the
mediating and moderating pathways within and between these contexts?)
The Data
To effectively address our questions, we are conducting secondary data analyses
on two national datasets, namely the Panel Study of Income Dynamics - Child
Development Supplement (PSID-CDS) and the National Education Longitudinal Study
of 1988 (NELS88). Each study contains rich contextual indicators and OST activity
measures that allow us to examine multiple predictors and dimensions of participation
(e.g., intensity, duration). These datasets also help to paint a detailed picture
of participation for youth and contexts that are commonly underrepresented in
the literature; the PSID-CDS population is particularly diverse due to an over
sampling of poor and minority children, and the NELS88 allows for demanding
tests of school and neighborhood contexts as children are nested within schools
and neighborhoods. Complementary analyses completed across these datasets will
take advantage of the unique characteristics of each dataset and provide broader
and more rigorous answers to our questions than if we used data from a single
local study. This investigation compliments and extends current W. T. Grant
funded work, such as projects by Eccles and Brooks-Gunn and Roth, by providing
in-depth analyses on multiple predictors of youth's current and sustained participation
in two large, nationally representative samples.
Practice and Policy Implications
This study will inform policy and practice by providing critical information
concerning how characteristics of children, families, schools, and neighborhoods
interact to predict participation in OST activities. From a practitioner standpoint,
understanding these complex interactions will enable programs to better assess
community needs and develop program activities that fill important gaps in service
delivery at the community level. It will also help program staff identify recruitment
strategies and barriers to participation, especially for at-risk youth. Because
of the interactive communications plan, practitioners will be engaged throughout
the study, ensuring that the information generated from this study will be useful
and relevant to their practice.
From a policy standpoint, this study will address a growing demand from the
policy community for rigorous research (Bouffard, 2003) and allow policymakers
to better target interventions for specific populations. A recent review of
four large after school evaluations clearly demonstrates that attendance in
after school programs is sporadic and short-lived (Kane, 2004). However, there
is some evidence to suggest that participation is boosted at programs located
in neighborhoods offering few alternatives for young people after school (Granger
& Kane, 2004). Understanding child, family, school, and neighborhood characteristics
that help shape participation, particularly sustained participation, will help
decision makers better allocate resources for nonschool-hour alternatives for
youth. Further, it will help identify barriers to participation that could be
addressed through examination of current social and welfare policies that inhibit
some youth from reaping the benefits of participating in OST activities.
Sharing the Findings
HFRP's team of highly skilled researchers, graduate students, consultants, and
staff from a variety of disciplines and experiences, including the field of
practice, will implement this grant. In addition to our expertise in the area
of OST participation, our previous communications work conducted as part of
an earlier W. T. Grant Foundation grant positions us well to ensure translation
and dissemination of our findings to key practitioner and policy audiences.
In line with the W. T. Grant Foundation's mission, we have a commitment to and
capacity for strategic communications that views information flow as two-way
between research and practice, and embraces ongoing communication among researchers,
practitioners, policymakers, advocates, and others invested in improving programs
and policies for young people. Specific communications tactics related to this
grant are (a) disseminating and marketing electronically, using our well-established
Web presence; (b) targeting key audiences with publications in a variety of
formats; (c) expanding outreach through convening; and (d) improving our strategy
through outreach to practitioners and key researchers.
 See
the latest papers published from this study (updated July 2006)
References
Bouffard, S. (2003). Doing what works:
Scientifically based research in education. The Evaluation Exchange,
9(1), 15,17.
Furstenberg, F. F., Jr., Cook, T. D., Eccles, J., & Elder, G. H. (1998).
Managing to make it: Urban families and adolescent success. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Granger, R. C., & Kane, T. (2004, February 18). Improving
the quality of after-school programs. Education Week, 23(23), 52,
76.
Kane, T. J. (2004). The
impact of after-school programs: Interpreting the results of four recent evaluations
[Acrobat file]. New York: W. T. Grant Foundation.
Lauver, S., Little, P. M. D., & Weiss, H. B. (2004). Moving
beyond the barriers: Attracting and sustaining youth participation in out-of-school
time programs. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project.
Mahoney, J. L. (2000). School
extracurricular activity participation as a moderator in the development of
antisocial patterns. Child Development, 71(2), 502–516.
Roeser, R. W., & Peck, S. C. (2003). Patterns and pathways of educational
achievement across adolescence: A holistic-developmental perspective. New
Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 101, 39–62.
Simpkins Chaput, S., Little, P. M. D., & Weiss, H. B. (2004). Understanding
and measuring attendance in out-of-school time programs. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard Family Research Project.
Project Team
Heather Weiss, Principal Investigator
and HFRP Director
Sandi Simpkins, Co-Investigator (email: sandra.simpkins@asu.edu)
Eric Dearing, Co-Investigator (email: deariner@uwyo.edu)
Holly Kreider, Project Manager
Priscilla Little, Research Associate
Suzanne Bouffard, Research Associate
Chris Wimer, Research Assistant (email: wimer@fas.harvard.edu)
To be kept updated on the progress of this project, please subscribe
to our OST updates email. For questions about the project, please contact
Holly Kreider, Project Manager.
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