Outside school activity participation and behavioral outcomes in middle childhood

Research has linked participating in outside school activity to lower dropout rates and reduced problem behaviors. Most studies have been limited to small populations of older children (>12 years). Middle childhood, in contrast to adolescence, is a stage when it is easier to encourage children to adopt healthy behaviors. This analysis estimated outside school activity participation and children's behavior for younger children ages 6-11 using the 2003-2004 National Survey of Children's Health. After excluding children with developmental or physical impairments and missing covariate data, estimates were based on 25,014 children. Outside school activity was defined as participating in sport teams/lessons, clubs/organizations, or both in the past year. Behavior problems were categorized by how frequently children were reported to bully/be cruel, argue, disobey, or act stubborn/irritable. Analysis of variance was used to evaluate the effect of participation in outside school activity on behavior problems adjusting for gender, race/ethnicity, household education, and family structure. Most children participated in outside school activities: 23% in sports, 16% in clubs, and 37% in both clubs and sports. Children who were non-Hispanic white, in a two-parent home, and whose household included an adult with more than a high school education more often participated in outside school activities. In preliminary analyses, children participating in both sports and clubs had significantly better behavior scores than children who did not participate in any activities (p=0.03). Future analyses will examine the impact of all activities combined and evaluate if the relationships are different focusing on severe behavioral problems.