Latinx and African American Youth Participation in Sports and Leisure: The Impact on Social Identity, Educational Outcomes, and Quality of Life

Abstract

Numerous studies have documented the positive effects of participation in sports and other leisure activities; many of these studies noting the positive effects on school engagement and community engagement outside of the school environment. (Fletcher AC, Nickerson PF, Wright KL: J Comm Psychol 31:641–659, 2003; Zaff JF, Moore KA, Romano Papillo A, Williams S: J Adolesc Res 18:599–630, 2003; Eime RM, Young JA, Harvey JT, Charity MJ, Payne WR: Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 10:135, 2003, etc.). For students of color, particularly African American and Latinx children, there is concern over the continued disparities in high school completion rates and educational outcomes. In the United States, recent education policy, the Every Student Succeeds Act, acknowledged the need to look at the whole child, provide a holistic approach and focus on protective factors in neighborhoods with complex realities. In addition, it is well recognized that addressing school success must also include the need to emphasize student mental and physical well being by focusing on protective factors such as active participation in school and community activities. Considering this context, the purpose of this study is to understand how school and community activities shape the content and meaning of students’ social identities and how those social identities influence their quality of life and engagement in school. Specifically, to understand from students’ own lived experience, how they experience quality of life. This study is informed by a borderlands perspective and social identity theory and uses a qualitative design drawing from The Student Life in High Schools Project (SLP), a longitudinal study of the transition to high school. The primary source of data for this project is the individual student interviews of 64 Mexican origin and African American youth attending Chicago Public High Schools during their sophomore year of high school. The Extended Case Method (ECM) grounded in a Chicana feminist epistemology was employed. The ECM itself combines qualitative research from various traditions and emphasizes a reflexive model of science allowing for an extension of existing theories.