Gardner, M., Roth, J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2008). Adolescents’ participation in organized activities and developmental success 2 and 8 years after high school: Do sponsorship, duration, and intensity matter? Developmental Psychology, 44(3), 814-830.
This article caught my eye for two reasons: 1) I always enjoy work by the YD program-power-duo Roth and Brooks-Gunn, and, more importantly, 2) the article explores the rather elusive relationship between duration and intensity of participation in youth programs. This bit of research uses NELS data to look at duration and intensity of participation in both school-based and community-based activities, and how that participation potentially affects educational, civic, and occupational outcomes 2 and 8 years post-high school. As per usual, they found that duration and intensity both predict positive outcome, but the new finding here is that intensity really matters the most when there is high duration (in this case, 2 years plus of participation). From an applied perspective, the issues surrounding duration and intensity of participation are important ones in determining “best-practice” implementation. If you are interested in youth programs, I definitely recommend this article as a good read – it is very readable (RML, I’m lookin’ at you) and clearly outlines the mish-mash of issues (program quality, type of program, context, etc. etc.) that come up in research on youth participation.
Rating: I’m going to start out strong here and give this one a 9 out of 10 Jetts.
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