Noncognitive Skills as Mediator of Relations Between Middle Childhood Organized Activities and Later Academic Performance

• In Event: Roundtable Session 43
  In Roundtable Session: Fostering Noncognitive and Social-Emotional Skills in Out-of-School Time Settings

Abstract

Organized activities are associated positively with academic functioning, with gender sometimes moderating these effects. However, the mechanisms of these relations are unclear. Using data from NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we test the hypothesis that organized activities are supportive contexts for the development of noncognitive skills and that these skills, in turn, support positive academic functioning. Structural equation model results indicate that middle childhood organized activities positively predict end of high school grades, and that this relation is partially mediated by noncognitive skills at Grade 9 in girls. Future out-of-school research should consider the development of noncognitive skills as a mechanism explaining academic outcomes, while simultaneously examining the moderating role of gender.

Authors

• Sabrina Kataoka, University of California - Irvine

• Deborah L. Vandell, University of California - Irvine