No abstract

This article examines the effects of extracurricular activities on students' popularity and peer status in middle school as well as the processes by which these effects occur. Findings from qualitative and quantitative data provide support for different gender dynamics regarding status, whereby females do not show the consistent gains in status that males experience. The findings also indicate how popularity and peer status processes do not always converge, but are differentially influenced by different activities.

This article examines parental values among midwestern middle-class families and the role of children's after-school activities in transmitting these values to the younger generation as parents themselves balance work and family life. Sociological research suggests that American parents favor characteristics of independence, autonomy, and self-reliance in their children over simple obedience and conformity. Similarly, the authors' qualitative research among middle-class working families in Michigan suggests that parents of preadolescent children also value the qualities of responsibility, self-discipline, and respect in their children and work to instill these traits both at home and through various after-school activities. In particular, parents of school-age children encourage and support participation in a variety of extracurricular activities that they perceive offer their children the opportunity to have fun, to be physically active, to discover and enhance special skills, and to develop self-esteem, commitment, social skills, teamwork, and helping behaviors.

The social side of American high schools is usually characterized by popular "preppies" and ']jocks," deviant "burnouts" and "headbangers," and low-status "nerds" and "dweebs. " The formation of an alternativefriendship group that resisted the cultures of the dominant peer groups is examined in a high school setting.

Social scientists have conducted numerous studies on college students’ binge drinking behavior. They have not, however, conducted any systematic studies of nondrinkers on college campuses. Our study focuses on the everyday experiences of nondrinking undergraduates who stay “dry” while living on “wet” campuses. We use the symbolic interactionist notions of identity work and deviance to show how nondrinkers employ a variety of stigma management strategies to avoid being labeled deviant. These strategies include the procurement of drinking props, fictive storytelling, alteration of personal appearance, concealment, disclosure, and capitulation. We extend the sociological study of identity work and deviance by documenting how nondrinkers experience and manage stigma and negotiate positive social and personal identities. Moreover, we apply the concepts of “negative deviants,” “rate busters,” and “positive deviants” to delineate how nondrinkers are viewed by different audiences on a “wet” campus.