Abstract

Encouraging involvement in school-based extracurricular activities (ECA) may be important for preventing high school dropout. However, the potential of these activities remains underexploited, perhaps because studies linking ECA involvement and dropout are rare and based on decades-old data. Previous studies also ignore key parameters of student involvement. The present study expands and updates this limited literature by using recent data from a high-risk Canadian sample (N = 545) and by considering a range of involvement parameters. Results showed that consistent involvement in the past year was associated with lower odds of dropout (OR = 0.32; 95% CI = 0.17–0.61). However, adolescents who interrupted their involvement during this period (e.g., because of cancelations or exclusions) were as much at risk of dropout as those who were not involved at all. Findings notably imply that excluding students from ECA (e.g., because of No Pass/No Play policies) may heighten their dropout risk.

摘要

鼓励参与以学校为基础的课外活动（ECA）对于防止高中辍学可能很重要。然而，这些活动的潜力仍未得到充分利用，这可能是因为将 ECA 参与和辍学联系起来的研究很少，而且基于几十年前的数据。以前的研究也忽略了学生参与的关键参数。本研究通过使用来自加拿大高风险样本（N = 545）并通过考虑一系列参与参数。结果显示，过去一年的持续参与与较低的辍学几率相关（OR = 0.32；95% CI = 0.17-0.61）。然而，在此期间中断参与（例如，由于取消或排除）的青少年与完全不参与的青少年一样面临辍学的风险。研究结果特别表明，将学生排除在 ECA 之外（例如，因为不通过/不玩政策）可能会增加他们的辍学风险。