Patterns of Out-of-School Activities and Relations to Prosocial Moral Behaviors

• In Event: Diverse prosocial behavior and the correlates: Contextualized examinations from childhood to young adulthood

Abstract

Many US children spend time afterschool in organized programs and activities (Hofferth, 2009). An increasing number of children from low to middle income families attend afterschool programs (Halpern, 2002). However, previous research suggests significant differences in children’s access and participation by family socioeconomic status and ethnic/racial background (Vandell et al., 2015) resulting in substantial variation in how children spend time afterschool. For instance, while some children attend one or multiple organized afterschool activities, clubs, or programs, others spend time at home alone or caring for younger siblings. Previous research has examined children’s out-of-school activity patterns among predominantly middle-class sample of children; Less is known about the time use patterns of underserved (low-income, minority status) children. Thus, the first aim of this study was to examine out-of-school activity patterns in a sample of predominantly underserved population of children. We utilized seven indicators of out-of-school time and conducted cluster analyses, including time in/at: (1) high-quality program, (2) coached sports, (3) music/arts/clubs, (4) lessons, (5) home alone without adult supervision, (6) home caring for sibling(s) without adult supervision, and (7) hanging out with peers without adult supervision.
Additionally, previous research suggests that children’s out-of-school time is an important ecological context and can support positive youth development (Durlak et al., 2010; Vandell et al., 2015). Some of this previous work utilized pattern centered analysis and examined the relations between patterns of afterschool activities and child and youth functioning (Bartko & Eccles, 2003; Zarrett et al., 2009). Thus, the second aim of this study was to examine whether children’s out-of-school time patterns were linked to their prosocial moral behaviors.
Participants were low-income, ethnically diverse elementary school children (N=1,796, Mage =8.7 yrs, 53% female, 77% Latino/a). Children’s out-of-school time use were obtained from children and afterschool programs during the school year (T1). Students reported their prosocial and aggressive/delinquent behaviors (adapted from Brown et al., 1986) in late Spring (T1), the Spring semester of the following year (T2), and five years after (T3). Students also reported their moral behaviors (adapted from Olivieri & Reiss, 1987) five years later.
First, we identified four reliable clusters through cluster analysis in ROPstat v2.0 and (see Table 1 for details; Bergman et al., 2003; Vargha et al., 2015): (a) regular participation in an afterschool program, (b) regular participation at an afterschool program and extracurricular activities, (c) unsupervised time plus extracurricular activities, and (d) low participation in any of these settings. Second, we conducted analysis of covariance in SPSS (see Table 2) using multiple imputation while controlling for child and family characteristics. Results showed that children who regularly attended afterschool programs combined with other extracurricular activities tended to have higher prosocial behavior and children who were low in participation in all settings tended to display more aggressive/delinquent behaviors concurrently and longitudinally. Discussion will emphasize the implications of the findings for out-of-school time use and children’s prosocial moral behaviors.
*Further cluster analysis will be conducted in the second year (T2), and transitions between clusters will be tested.

Authors

• Zehra Gulseven, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  Presenting Author

• Sandra Simpkins, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nicole Zarrett, University of South Carolina
  Non-Presenting Author

• Deborah Lowe Vandell, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author