Parks and recreation departments (PARDs) can help alleviate societal problems associated with at-risk youths. To better position PARD programs for reducing risky behavior, there must be scientific evidence showing their impact on youths' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. The paper examines existing evaluation studies highlighting the positive…

Discusses Wichita (Kansas) School District's constructed policy to "create an equal footing" for girls of all races, ethnicities, and social class to become cheerleaders. Finds the policies were not successful. Highlights importance of peer-group affiliation in adolescent girls' lives and how this marker of identity intersected with a…

Over the past decade, "out-of-school time" and "after-school programs" have been identified as objects of research, funding, and policy initiatives across federal and state agencies as well as public, private, and nonprofit foundations. The increasing attention to and funding of programs that engage youth outside of the formal…

Using an integration of social control theory and the routine activity perspective, adolescent time use was examined for effects on problem behaviors. We examined a wide variety of time use categories, including homework, extracurricular activities, sports time, alone time, paid work, housework, television watching, as well as indices of family…

American adolescents spend a significant portion of their time in leisure activities, but little research has been done on adolescent extrafamilial leisure activities, either alone or with peers. This paper examines adolescents' own accounts of such activities. As part of a longitudinal study of rural youth development, semistructured interviews…

This guide for 4-H leaders and volunteers offers information to help integrate youth with disabilities into various 4-H programs. After an introduction, a section on 4-H and mainstreaming reviews the mission of 4-H; considers what 4-H has to offer youth; defines mainstreaming; notes the benefits of mainstreaming; and distinguishes among the terms…

This 1984 report by the National Association of Secondary School Principals is based on a survey of 1,500 students from grades 7 through 12 selected by means of a probability sample by National Family Opinions, Inc. The report compares today's students with those surveyed in a similar study in 1974. Chapter 1, "Students and Their Schools,"…

If teenagers do not find support at school, home, or in the community, then they will find it with peers, gangs, or other means. Subsequently, the importance of extra-curricular involvement for at-risk youth is reported in this paper; to what extent this involvement had potential to influence performance in academics is also examined. Involvement…

Volume 6 of" The Prevention Researcher" contains three 12-page issues and one supplement. Issue Number 1 focuses on gambling, and contains the following articles: (1) "Gambling in the Family: The Hidden Addiction" (D. A. Abbott); (2) "Adolescent Gambling and Substance Use: The View from Texas" (L. Wallisch); (3)…

Examined predictors of nonmarital motherhood between eighth and twelfth grade in nationally representative sample. Found that risk for early motherhood was predicted by low individual educational performance measures, being held back in school, and repeatedly changing schools. Lower risk was associated with substantial involvement in school clubs…

This research investigates the effects of extracurricular activities on alcohol use among male (n = 4,495) and female (n = 5,398) adolescents who participated in the 1990-92 National Education Longitudinal Study. Previous studies have assessed the association between extracurricular activities and alcohol use, but none have explored whether the…

Many young people in the District of Columbia are failing to make a successful transition to adulthood. Their challenges include poor preparation for the high-skills labor market and long-standing health problems. Recent District government efforts have centered around school reform and early childhood, but these areas are not sufficient to…

The Monitoring the Future survey of high school seniors, the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, and the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 were used to provide information about adolescents' time use, their risky behaviors, and the outcomes of time-use patterns in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Spending significant portions of…

Activities that engaged the full attention of adolescents at school were explored using the Experience Sampling Method, in which subjects were interrupted by a pager to record their experience at the moment the pager signaled. Two variables indicating optimal subjective experience and undivided attention were operationalized: interest and flow…

The paper reviews the published research literature that assesses the role of the secondary school extracurricular program in the overall development of adolescents. The studies reviewed are divided into four areas: Immediate Effects of Activity Participation which includes the variables of powerlessness, committedness, self-concept, moral…