This article focuses on children's engagement in extracurricular activities from the perspective of middle-class parents in Rome, Italy, and Los Angeles, California. Analysis of parents' accounts captured in interviews and ethnographic fieldwork reveals that both sets of parents perceive activities as important for children's success. Yet Roman…

Many parents work hard to foster a culture of learning early in their children's development. The desire for children to learn as early as possible is common among Hong Kong-Australian families. These children continue to perform well academically. Little is known about the pedagogy that underpins such development in the family or on the…

Although organized activities (OAs) have been established as important contexts of development, limited work has examined the role of OAs across the high school transition in buffering adolescents' social adjustment by providing opportunities for visibility and peer affiliation. The transition to high school is characterized by numerous changes…

This study explores the science teaching efficacy beliefs of preservice elementary teachers and the relationship between efficacy beliefs and multiple factors such as antecedent factors (participation in extracurricular activities and number of science and science teaching methods courses taken), conceptual understanding, classroom management…

International youth work in Europe (i.e. non-formal learning) demands a renewal of the prominent intercultural theory and framework in the youth field in order to cope with contemporary questions concerning pluralism and global challenges. This article provides a new theoretical framework for intercultural learning that departs from a complex,…

University students who were high versus low on breakup distress scores were given self-report measures to assess their intrusive thoughts about the romantic breakup and their somatic symptoms that followed the breakup as well as their extracurricular activities and social support that might alleviate their breakup distress. In a regression…

The requirement for continuous improvements and the lack of funds for schools to properly implement all the mandates puts schools in the inevitable position of having to make tough decisions with regards to programs. The central theme of NCLB requires states to adopt a plan for accountability that will lead to increased achievement for all…

The Latino/a population is one of the fastest growing ethnic groups nationwide. It is estimated that the Latino/a population increased by 43% since 2000. Although this may be the case, data shows that Latino males continue to be underrepresented within the educational system at the post-secondary institutional level. Case studies of five Latino…

Educational reform movements have increased the attention to the importance of leadership development in higher education (Astin, Kuep, & Lindholm, 2002) and provided standards for these programs (CAS, 2006). Research identified a relationship between extracurricular participation and leadership outcomes (Birkenholz & Schumacher, 1994),…

Data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 were used to compare 11,000 high school students on school size, time spent participating in extracurricular activities (ECA), and hours spent in employment. Findings indicated that students from small schools spent more time participating in ECA than students from larger schools for equivalent…

Using longitudinal data from a subsample of Hispanic, African American, and White youth enrolled in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (N = 1,419), we examined the effects of both parental involvement in domestic violence and youth participation in organized out-of-school-time activities on internalizing symptoms during…

Previous research that has explored stress differences between "hard" and "soft" academic majors did not provide clear criteria for categorizing "hard" and "soft" majors, used a single item to measure reported stress, and reported contradictory stress differences between academic majors (Myrtek, Hilgenberg,…

The article discusses the implementation and results of a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project carried out with black high school students in 2009 and 2010 in Montreal, QC. The aim of the project was to involve black youth in studying the factors that either enhance or impede their success in school and thereby have them identify…

The student experience is a widely used term; however, what makes up its critical components is not well understood. The focus on "students" is a key feature of the government's demand-driven system and its proposed "myUniversity" website. Understanding all aspects of the student experience will be critical to attracting and…

Extracurricular activities are settings that are theorized to help adolescents maintain existing friendships and develop new friendships. The overarching goal of the current investigation was to examine whether coparticipating in school-based extracurricular activities supported adolescents' school-based friendships. We used social network methods…