Background: Intrapersonal and external factors, including social pressures and the desire for acceptance from peers, influence sexual activity among adolescents. This study examined how personal characteristics, risky behaviors, normative beliefs, household factors, and engagement in extracurricular activities were related to high school freshman…

Background: Participation in extracurricular activities can have positive effects on youth, with greater participation associated with higher academic as well as better socioemotional and behavioral outcomes. Little research has examined differential effects of in-school and out-of-school activities. Methods: This study examines in-school and…

In this paper, we identify how and why digital media production can contribute to the active participation of children in education and also consider how much of the existing work in this area is framed as a "miraculous" answer to educational challenges without critical interrogation of either the process or product. To begin, we…

The research investigated the association between school engagement and adult education and occupation outcomes, within the context of a 1985 Australian longitudinal national cohort study of the factors affecting children's long-term health and well-being. School engagement may be more modifiable than other factors related to academic…

This study makes two contributions to the literature. First, it bridges the sociological discussion of social class habitus with psychological notions of adolescents' educational expectations, locus of control, and self-concepts. Second, it empirically examines the relationships between early employed parental practices and expectations and…

"Selling yourself" through personal statements and interviews is now a standard practice for university applicants. This article draws on a multi-case-study research project to report on the self-marketing orientations of students within three 16-19 institutions in England. These orientations (active/passive; internal/external;…

Students benefit in many ways by taking field trips to forests. Improved academic performance, increased participation in outdoor recreation, and a better grasp of natural resources management are some of the advantages. However, trips are not easy for teachers to organize and lead. Declining budgets, on-campus schedules, and standards of learning…

The authors explore the importance of developing professional behavior among business students and introduce a program designed to incentivize professionalism during undergraduate study. The Professionalism Recognition Program was established to promote, recognize, rate, and reward the students' professional conduct in a flexible and widely…

Extracurricular events in foreign language programs are often treated either as extra credit or an afterthought. And yet if organized creatively and systematically, activities that promote cultural engagement outside the classroom can enhance and extend the curriculum, deepen exposure to the target culture, create a sense of community among…

Schools are often encouraged to facilitate extra-curricular learning within their own premises. This study addresses the potential of social networking sites (SNS) for supporting such out-of-class study. Given concerns that learning on these sites may happen at a surface level, we adopted self-determination theory for designing a social networking…

Grounded in social cognitive theory, the purpose of this study was to examine leaders' and students' perspectives of factors that contribute to effective voluntary after-school physical activity clubs. Data were collected over two-years via field observations (n= 115) and interviews with students (n= 278) and adult leaders (n= 126).…

In this paper we give an overview of relevant findings of a three years long case study that was carried out in the Madeira Island, Portugal. It addresses a thirty years old project in music and drama education in primary schools, which involves all children within the school curriculum, but also in extra-curriculum activities. The study used…

According to this author, when it comes to data-based decision making, many educators are looking in the wrong place. This is one reason why this potentially powerful practice has too often under-delivered. Many schools rush headlong into analyzing data without considering if the data they are reviewing is worth the effort, if other data might…

Participation in youth programming fosters positive developmental outcomes for youth, yet recruitment and retention are ongoing challenges. Given the imbalance in rates of participation of ethnic minority youth, compared with White youth, it is important to gain a greater understanding of the contextual factors that promote or inhibit…

Adolescent participation in academic/extracurricular activities is related to fewer diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections during adolescence. The role parents play in motivating participation in such activities is unclear. This mixed-methods study explored parental influences on academic/extracurricular activity participation, and the…