Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway NE, MS-F63, Atlanta, GA 30341.
Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, Boston University, Two Silber Way, Boston, MA 02215.
J Sch Health. 2019 Feb;89(2):79-87. doi: 10.1111/josh.12715.
School-based extracurricular activity participation is one of the primary avenues for prosocial activity engagement during adolescence. In this study, we test the "overscheduling hypothesis" or whether the negative relationship between structured activity intensity (ie, hours) and adolescent bullying and fighting levels off or declines at moderate to high intensity (ie, threshold effects).
This study uses the Dane County Youth Survey (N = 14,124) to investigate the relationship between school-based extracurricular activity participation intensity and bullying perpetration and physical fighting and whether there are threshold effects of activity participation intensity.
The results indicate that there is a negative relationship between extracurricular activity participation intensity and bullying perpetration and physical fighting and that there are threshold effects in these relationships at 3 to 4 hours per week. Results also suggest that low-income adolescents engage in more fighting than other youth and the negative relationship between activity participation intensity and physical fighting was mainly concentrated among low-income adolescents.
School-based extracurricular activity participation-in moderation (ie, up to 3-4 hours per week)-may provide a positive, supportive context that could be a promising prevention strategy for bullying and fighting. Implications for future research on how school-based extracurricular activity participation intensity benefits adolescent functioning are discussed.
学校课外活动参与是青少年参与亲社会活动的主要途径之一。在这项研究中，我们检验了“过度安排假说”，即结构化活动强度（即小时数）与青少年欺凌和打架水平之间的负相关是否在中等至高强度（即阈值效应）时趋于平稳或下降。
本研究使用 Dane County Youth Survey（N=14124）调查了学校课外活动参与强度与欺凌行为和身体打架之间的关系，以及活动参与强度是否存在阈值效应。
结果表明，课外活动参与强度与欺凌行为和身体打架之间呈负相关，且在每周 3 到 4 小时之间存在阈值效应。结果还表明，低收入青少年比其他青少年更多地参与打架，而活动参与强度与身体打架之间的负相关主要集中在低收入青少年中。
学校课外活动适度参与（即每周 3-4 小时）可能提供了一个积极、支持性的环境，这可能是预防欺凌和打架的一个有前途的策略。讨论了关于学校课外活动参与强度如何有益于青少年功能的未来研究的意义。
