Activities, engagement, and emotion in after‐school programs (and elsewhere)

Abstract

Experiences that are deeply engaging and enjoyable, engender full concentration, and present a balance between challenge and skill promote children's development. This chapter describes a study that sought to identify the kinds of settings and activities that foster engagement and, by extension, positive youth development. The after-school experiences of 191 ethnically diverse youth living in three states, some of whom participated in after-school programs and some of whom did not, were studied. Youth were equipped with logbooks and watches that were programmed to signal at random times. When signaled, youth recorded their location, social partners, activity, and feelings. The study found pervasive differences in the experiences at programs and elsewhere. Youth spent more time in academic and arts enrichment, organized sports and physical activities, community service, and homework at programs versus elsewhere, and they spent less time eating and watching TV at programs. They also reported higher levels of motivation, engagement, and positive affect at programs. At the same time, there were few differences in activities, emotions, effort, or motivation of program participants and nonparticipants when both groups were elsewhere. The similarities in these experiences while elsewhere suggest that the program context, not differences in youth characteristics or interests, was responsible for the feelings of engagement that were reported at programs.

Adolescent summer care arrangements and risk for obesity the following school year

“…Perhaps for this reason, youth participation in organized out-of-school activities such as sports, after-school programs, and extracurricular activities have received attention from researchers interested in obesity. These activities tend to limit eating, offer opportunities for physical recreation, and may encourage healthy lifestyles (Mahoney, Lord, & Carryl, 2005a; Vandell et al, 2005). …”

Including educational dance in an after-school socio-emotional learning program significantly improves pupils’ self-management and relationship skills? A quasi experimental study

“…Another possible explanation may be that the control group condition also consisted of after-school activities, and being engaged in enjoyable activities in their free time at school may have influenced pupils' well-being and their positive engagement with school tasks and school-related activities which, thus, may have led to the lack of differences between the two conditions. In fact, research has shown that after-school activities may contribute to pupils' feeling more intrinsically motivated and to putting more effort into their activities (Fredricks & Simpkins, 2011;Grogan, Henrick, & Malikina, 2014;Vandell et al, 2005).…”

Young women’s lived experience of participating in a positive youth development programme

“…The initial excitement about participation in T&T set the stage for an engaging experience (Vandell et al, 2005). However, for many, the challenge of working with young children did not provide the right balance of challenge and skill (Larson, 2000) to support building competence and a sense of achievement.…”

“…Paired interview 1, School 3 PYD programmes seek to offer an 'engaging experience' (Vandell et al, 2005), that allows for intrinsic motivation, effort and concentration. Engagement is reflected in the extent to which young people are focused and excited about the activities in which they are participating Larson, 2000).…”