OHIO — Some kindergarten-aged kids are missing out on being able to participate in extracurricular activities. A new Ohio State University study has begun to shed light on why.
What You Need To Know
- Over 400 kids were a part of the study, which is a part of the Early Learning Ohio project
- Researchers examined whether or not participation in extracurricular activities was related to their vocabulary growth and development
- Kids with moms who had graduate or professional degrees were about twice as likely to take part in sports than those of less-educated moms
- Researchers have found kids in extracurricular activities are more prepared for school when it comes to self control or rule following in class
Researchers took a look at demographics, including race, gender and education levels of mothers, while noting how those things related to their child’s participation in sports, lessons and clubs.
“We did find that extracurricular activities were associated with child demographic characteristics and their likelihood of participating in extracurricular activities in particular,” said Arianna Black, an Ohio State University doctoral student and co-author of the latest study.
The findings also highlighted some gaps when it came to education levels and race.
“So, for instance, 47% of children whose mothers had a high school equivalent education or less participated in the most common activity, which was athletics, compared to 96% of children whose mothers had a graduate or professional degree,” she said.
“We found similar patterns of participation in terms of these gaps across most activity types.”
Researchers also found that white kids were more than two and half times more likely to participate in sports than any other race or ethnicity.
While Black indicated there’s been quite a bit of research concerning adolescents and the benefits associated with participating in extracurricular activities, not as much has been done with kids of kindergarten age.
Even so, she said “We're seeing that for young children when they're participating in extracurricular activities, they are more prepared for school in terms of behaviors that we might want to see or that might be expected in the classroom space. That includes being able to follow rules, exercising self control and being able to get through difficult times."
When it comes to addressing the equity gaps, Black said “We want children from all backgrounds to be able to have similar opportunities, particularly because we are seeing these benefits with adolescents as well as these trends for younger students having these benefits associated with extracurricular activity participation. And so having these equitable opportunities can help close those opportunity gaps.”
She added that intervening much earlier to help kids advance will only help close the opportunity gaps that researchers see.