Immigrant Youth Involvement in School-Based Extracurricular Activities

Abstract

ABSTRACT Extracurricular activity involvement is generally beneficial toward student progress and success. Little is known, however, about immigrant youth involvement in school-based extracurricular activities. The author examined the patterns of Latino and Asian American youth extracurricular involvement by focusing on the pertinent role of immigrant generational status. Analyses, which draw from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 and logistic regression analyses, indeed reveal imperative findings. Most notably, Latino 3rd-plus generation immigrant students are more likely to participate in sports, whereas Asian American first-generation immigrant students are more likely to be involved with academic extracurricular activities. Immigrant generational status matters when examining extracurricular participation of the children of immigrants. The implications of such extracurricular involvement in the U.S. educational system are discussed more generally.