Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This study involves a two-year longitudinal investigation of adolescent participation in unstructured youth recreation centres and the development of antisocial behaviour. Participants were 1163 adolescents who represented 92% of all eighth-grade students in the town of Örebro, Sweden, during the fall of 1999. Antisocial young people and those with poor relations to parents or school were likely to become involved in the centres. After controlling for these selection influences, the frequency of youth centre participation was associated with a significant increase in antisocial behaviour over time for boys and girls. Youth centres that aggregated many antisocial peers together were particularly likely to promote the antisocial behaviour of new attendees. The findings are consistent with prior theory and research on youth development and out-of-school activities. Activities that lack structure and skill-building aims appear to attract high-risk adolescents and the resulting social environment is conducive to the development of antisocial behaviour.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Caldwell, L. L. , & Baldwin, C. K. (in press). What constrains adolescents’ leisure? A developmental approach. In E. Jackson (Ed.), Constraints to leisure. State College, PA: Venture .

Catalano, R. F. , Berglund, M. L. , Ryan, J. A. , Lonczak, H. S. , & Hawkins, J. D. (1999). Positive youth development in the United States: Research findings on evaluations of positive youth development programs. Report to the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development. New York: Carnegie Corporation of New York .

Dishion, T. J. , McCord, J. , & Poulin, F. (1999). When interventions harm: Peer groups and problem behavior . American Psychologist, 54, 755–764 .

Eccles, J. S. (in press). The present and future of research on activity settings as developmental contexts. To appear in J. L. Mahoney , R. W. Larson , & J. S. Eccles (Eds.), Organized activities as contexts of development: Extracurricular activities, after-school and community programs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

Eccles, J. S , & Gootman, J. A. (Eds.) (2002). Community programs to promote youth development. National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Division of Behavioral and Social Science and Education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press .

Eccles, J. S. , & Templeton, J. (2002). Extracurricular and other after-school activities for youth . Review of Research in Education, 26, 113–180 .

Larson, R. W. (2000). Toward a psychology of positive youth development . American Psychologist, 55, 170–183 .

Mahoney, J. L. , Larson, R. W. , & Eccles, J. S. (in press-a). Organized activities as contexts of development: Extracurricular activities, after-school and community programs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

Mahoney, J. L. , Larson, R. , Eccles, J. S. , & Lord, H. (in press-b). Organized activities as developmental contexts for children and adolescents. In J. L. Mahoney , R. W. Larson , & J. S. Eccles (Eds.), Organized activities as contexts of development: Extracurricular activities, after-school and community programs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

10.

Mahoney, J. L. , & Stattin, H. (2000). Leisure time activities and adolescent antisocial behavior: The role of structure and social context . Journal of Adolescence, 23, 113–127 .

11.

Mahoney, J. L. , Stattin, H. , & Magnusson, D. (2001). Youth recreation centre participation and criminal offending: A 20-year longitudinal study of Swedish boys . International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 509–520 .

12.

McLaughlin, M. W. (2000). Community counts: How youth organizations matter for youth development. Washington, DC: Public Education Network .

13.

Osgood, D. W. , Wilson, J. K. , O’Malley, P. M. , Bachman, J. G. , & Johnston, L. D. (1996). Routine activities and individual deviant behavior . American Sociological Review, 61, 635–655 .

14.

Patterson, G. R. (1993). Orderly change in a stable world: The antisocial trait as a chimera . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61, 911–919 .

15.

Persson, A. , Kerr, M. , & Stattin, H. (in press). Why a leisure context is linked to normbreaking for some girls and not others: Personality characteristics and parent–child relations as explanations . Journal of Adolescence.

16.

Roffman, J. G. , Pagano, M. E. , & Hirsch, B. J. (2001). Youth functioning and experiences in inner-city after-school programs among age, gender, and race groups . Journal of Child and Family Studies, 19, 85–100 .

17.

Schinke, S. P. , Orlandi, M. A. , & Cole, K. C. (1992). Boys’ and girls’ clubs in public housing developments: Prevention services for youth at risk . Journal of Community Psychology: OSAP Special Issue, 20, 118–128 .

18.

Simpkins, S. D. , Fredricks., J. , Davis-Kean, P. , & Eccles, J. S. (in press). Health minds, health habits: The influence of activity involvement in middle childhood. To appear in A. Huston & M. Ripke (Eds.), Middle childhood: Contexts of development. New York: Cambridge University Press .

19.

Smolensky, E. , & Gootman, J. A. (Eds.). (2003). Working families and growing kids: Caring for children and adolescents. Washington, DC: National Academies Press .

20.

Stattin, H. , Kerr, M. , Mahoney, J. L. , Persson, A. , & Magnusson, D. (in press). Explaining why a leisure context is bad for some girls and not for others. In J. L. Mahoney , J. S. Eccles , & R. Larson (Eds.), Organized activities as contexts of development: Extracurricular activities, after-school and community programs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

21.

Stattin, H. , Magnusson, D. , & Reichel, H. (1986). Criminality from childhood to adulthood. (Report No. 63). Stockholm: University of Stockholm, Individual Development and Adjustment Program .

22.

St-Pierre, T. L. , Mark, M. M. , Kaltreider, D. L. , & Campbell, B. (2001). Boys’ & girls’ clubs and school collaborations: A longitudinal study of a multi-component substance abuse prevention program for high-risk elementary school children . Journal of Community Psychology, 29, 87–106 .

Unstructured youth recreation centre participation and antisocial behaviour development: Selection influences and the moderating role of antisocial peers

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References