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The Role of Intentional Self Regulation, Lower Neighborhood Ecological Assets, and Activity Involvement in Youth Developmental Outcomes

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Abstract

Extracurricular activities provide a key context for youth development, and participation has been linked with positive developmental outcomes. Using data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), this study explored how the intentional self regulation ability of youth interacted with participation in extracurricular activities to affect PYD among adolescents living in neighborhoods with relatively low ecological assets. In total, 545 youth were included in the study (50.3% female). Most of the youth were European American (41%) or Latino (37%; African American, 10%; Asian American, 7%; Native American, 4%; and other, 1%). In general, youth with the greatest capacity to self regulate benefitted the most, as compared to their peers with less capacity to self regulate, from involvement in extracurricular activities. Consistent with a developmental systems perspective, and specifically with bioecological theory, the findings from this study confirmed that, within lower asset settings, children with the most positive person-level factors (intentional self regulation) benefit the most from proximal processes such as extracurricular activity involvement.

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Notes

  1. For the purposes of graphing the SOC × activity involvement interactions (Figs. 1–11) low SOC was set at −0.5, medium SOC was set at 0, and high SOC was set at 0.5.

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Acknowledgments

This article is based on a dissertation submitted by Jennifer Brown Urban to Cornell University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree. The research was supported in part by a grant from the National 4-H Council. The authors thank Stephen Hamilton, William Trochim, Ray Swisher, and Erin Phelps for their invaluable contributions to the research reported in this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family and Child Studies, Montclair State University, 1 Normal Ave., University Hall, Room 4144, Montclair, NJ, 07043, USA

    Jennifer Brown Urban

  2. Tufts University, Medford/Somerville, MA, USA

    Selva Lewin-Bizan & Richard M. Lerner

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  1. Jennifer Brown Urban
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  2. Selva Lewin-Bizan
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  3. Richard M. Lerner
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Correspondence to Jennifer Brown Urban.

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Urban, J.B., Lewin-Bizan, S. & Lerner, R.M. The Role of Intentional Self Regulation, Lower Neighborhood Ecological Assets, and Activity Involvement in Youth Developmental Outcomes. J Youth Adolescence 39, 783–800 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-010-9549-y

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