The Afterschool Picture: What Does the Research Tell Us

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The Afterschool Picture What Does the Research
Tell Us?

• Deborah Lowe Vandell
• Council of Child State School Officers
• November 18, 2005

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Several Factors Have Contributed to an Increased
Interest in Afterschool Programs

• High rates of maternal employment
• 69 of married mothers and 71 of single mothers
  of 6- to 17-year-olds are employed
• Concerns about
• negative effects of self-care
• youth as victims and perpetrators of crime
• poor academic performance
• needs of English-learning students
• Evidence of the beneficial effects of sustained
  participation in high quality programs and
  activities

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After-School Programs Narrowly Defined and
Broadly Defined

• Narrow definition programs that are offered by
  schools or other organizations on a daily basis
  throughout the school year
• Broad definition includes extracurricular
  activities, sports, clubs, and sports that are
  offered on a regularly scheduled basis by
  schools, libraries, and youth organizations

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After-School Programs Can Offer

• Organized sports and recreational sports
• Music, drama
• Arts and crafts
• Computer-based activities
• Science math activities
• Homework time

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Income and Education Differences in Rates of
Participation in Organized After-School Activities

• Extracurricular activities (2000)
• 90 - nonpoor families
• 65 poor nonwelfare families
• 59 welfare families
• Organized activities (1999)
• 5.8 - mothers w/ less than high school diploma
• 18.1 - mothers are college graduates
• Lessons (1990)
• 20 - incomes of 50,000
• 6 - incomes of 15,000 - 25,000
• 8 - incomes of lt 15,000

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When Are Programs More Likely to have Beneficial
effects?
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when program quality is high

• Study of Variations in Program Quality (Pierce,
  Hamm, Vandell, 1999 Vandell Pierce, 2003)
• 30 programs, 150 children, heterogeneous sample
• Program observations and child reports measured
  staff-child relationships, peer relationships,
  types of activities
• Analyses control for family background and child
  prior functioning
• Examined child developmental outcomes from
  1st-5th grades
• Program quality was related to child academic
  performance, social skills, and (reduced)
  behavior problems.

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when students regularly attend the program

• Safe Haven Evaluation (Vandell Pierce, 2001)
• 588 children (3rd- 5th grades) 152 program
  participants
• Substantial mobility (from the school the
  program)
• Program attendance varied widely within (1 163
  days) and across programs (mean 60 days to 111
  days)
• Controlling for family and child background,
  children who attended for more days, were
  reported to have better work habits, social
  skills, and school attendance

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Study of Promising Afterschool Programs (Vandell,
Reisner, et al., 2005)

• 19 elementary school programs
• 1820 3rd and 4th grade students
• 90 free or reduced lunch
• 90 children of color
• 18 middle school programs
• 1119 6th and 7th grade studies
• 76 free or reduced lunch
• 70 children of color

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Characteristics of the Promising Programs

• Supportive relations w/adults
• Supportive relations w/peers
• Student engagement
• Appropriate structure
• Autonomy opportunities
• Cognitive growth opportunities
• Mastery orientation

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Contrasts with Unsupervised Youth Effect Sizes
in the Elementary Sample
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Contrasts with Unsupervised Youth
Effect Sizes in Middle School
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• TASC evaluation (Policy Studies Associates)
• 12, 973 very active participants, 17,805 active
  participants, non-active participants, 39,870
  nonparticipants.
• greater math gains

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Program effects also related to childrens
activities

• Su dissertation
• Ecological Study of After-School Care (Posner
  Vandell, 1994 Posner Vandell, 1999)
• More time in enrichment activities was related to
  better work habits, academic grades, work habits,
  emotional well-being, and peer relations
• More time in supervised academic work related to
  higher math and read grades

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Beneficial Effects of After-School Programs Also
Are More Evident For

• Low-income children (Marshall et al., 1997
• Pettit et al. 1997 Posner Vandell, 1994
  TASC evaluation)
• Children with limited English (TASC evaluation)
• Low achieving students (TASC evaluation)

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Why are after-school programs beneficial?
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Experiences Study (Vandell, et al. 2005)

• 191 8th grade students of color,
• 8 middle schools in 3 communities
• Students wore watches that beeped them 35 times
  during 1 wk in the fall and 35 times during 1 wk
  in the spring
• Beeps occurred at random times during the
  after-school hours, evenings, and weekends

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Students Filled Out Logbooks

• For each signal, students recorded
• Who they were with
• Where they were
• What they were doing
• How they were feeling
• Levels of effort, concentration, motivation

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After-School Experiences Study

• On average, students responded to 33 of the 35
  signals during the week.
• 12,143 after-school, evening, and weekend
  experiences were reported.
• 5, 136 of the experiences occurred after school.

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Student Activities at Programs and Elsewhere (
of time)
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Differences in Supervision ( of time)
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Differences in Motivation, Effort, and Feelings
(4-pt ratings)
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Likelihood of Different Choice/Concentration
Combinations
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Conclusions

• Afterschool programs have been linked to a number
  of developmental outcomes for children and youth
• Social -
• Behavioral
• Academic
• Some program elements and processes have been
  consistently related to child developmental
  outcomes
• positive relations between staff and children
• positive peer relations
• engagement and interest in the activities
• Additional research is needed to identify if some
  program models are more successful for particular
  students or particular goals
• Are academic programs needed to support
  academic outcomes?

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dvandell_at_wisc.edu

• for more information