After-School Activities, Misbehavior in School, and Delinquency From the End of Elementary School Through the Beginning of High School: A Test of Social Development Model Hypotheses

• NCJ Number: 222437
• Journal: Journal of Early Adolescence Volume: 28 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2008 Pages: 277-303
• Author(s): Charles B. Fleming; Richard F. Catalano; James J. Mazza; Eric C. Brown; Kevin P. Haggerty; Tracy W. Harachi
• Date Published: May 2008
• Length: 27 pages
• Grant Number(s): RO1 DA08093-10
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

In order to test the hypothesis that antisocial behavior in one developmental time period leads to an aversion to structured positive socializing influences in the subsequent developmental time period (social development model), this study examined the association among after-school activities, misbehavior in school, and delinquency for 776 students monitored from the end of their elementary-school years through their first year in high school.

Abstract

Consistent with the hypotheses of the social development model, participation in fewer structured and more unstructured activities was predictive of more misbehavior in school and delinquency within this developmental period. That these relationships were predictive, controlling for earlier levels of antisocial behavior, is evidence of activity involvement being linked to social development. There was also evidence that the level of antisocial behavior during elementary school predicted involvement in after-school activities in middle school; i.e., students who exhibited teacher-reported disruptive behavior in the last year of elementary school were more involved in unstructured after-school activities and less involved in structured after-school activities in the first year of middle school. These predictive relationships, however, were small in statistical size. Contrary to social development model hypotheses, there was little evidence that antisocial behavior predicted activity involvement across the transition into high school, after accounting for prior patterns of involvement in activity. Consistent with routine activities theory, involvement in unstructured activity and delinquent behavior in the first year of high school were positively correlated after adjusting for prior levels of antisocial behavior and involvement in structured and unstructured activities. Data were obtained from parents and students in the spring of each project year, and teacher surveys were administered in the spring until students were in eighth grade. 2 tables, 1 figure, and 49 references