School-based extracurricular activities, personality, self-concept, and college career development skills in Chinese society

Abstract

In the present study, we examined in Chinese society the association of school-based extracurricular activities (SBEAs) in both high school and college with students’ career development skills in college, as well as with various personality characteristics and self-concept. Each of 281 college students administered the Lai Personality Inventory, the Tennessee Self Concept Scale, the Adult Career Cognition Scale and an SBEA questionnaire. The results indicate that students who were more engaged in SBEAs had a healthier self-concept, were more extraverted, had better psychological health, were more emotionally stable, and had better social adaption and career development skills than other students. The implications and limitations of the findings, as well as future directions for research, are discussed.