Abstract
Sexual harassment and participation in extracurricular activities are two common experiences for adolescents, yet little research examines the interplay between these two phenomena, particularly among low-income, racial/ethnic minority adolescents. This study examined whether participation in four types of extracurricular activities—school-based, structured community-based, unstructured community-based, and home-based—was associated with adolescents’ PTSD and depressive symptoms over time, and whether those relations were mediated by neighborhood-based sexual harassment. Participants were 537 adolescents who were on average 15.6 years old, 54% girls, and majority Latino/a (n = 416; 77.5%). Path analyses revealed a significant indirect effect between unstructured community-based activities, but not structured community-based, school- nor home-based extracurricular activities and PTSD symptoms via sexual harassment. The findings point to the importance of examining how unstructured community-based extracurricular activities may increase neighborhood risks for adolescents, and the need for creating opportunities for adolescents to engage in structured and well supervised after-school extracurricular activities.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Isis Settles for her feedback and comments on previous drafts of this paper and all members of the Resilience in Context lab for their support on presentations of this work.
Authors' Contributions
A.S.M. contributed to the present study’s conception and design, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript; K.M.D. also contributed to the present study’s conception, design, and preparation of the manuscript draft; R.C. conceived the original study, acquired project funding, contributed to the material preparation, data collection, and contributed to the study’s analytical design and preparation of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
This research was supported by a National Science Foundation (grant no. 1348957) awarded to the third author.
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The dataset generated and analyzed during the current study is not publicly available but is available from the third author on reasonable request.
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This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the University of Michigan and performed in accor-dance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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All participating students under 18 years of age provided signed parental consent forms and completed adolescent assent forms. Students who were 18 years old provided signed consent forms. School administrators at each school approved of all recruitment materials, survey measures, and data collection procedures.
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Mora, A.S., LoDuca, K.M. & Ceballo, R. Adolescents in the Community: Extracurricular Activities and Sexual Harassment. J Youth Adolescence 52, 1788–1798 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01812-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01812-8