title: Extracurricular associations and college enrollment.
abstract: There is consistent evidence that student involvement in extracurricular activities (EAs) is associated with numerous academic benefits, yet understanding how peer associations within EAs might influence this link is not well understood. Using Add Health's comprehensive data on EA participation across 80 schools in the United States, we develop a novel measure of peer associations within EA activities. We find that EA participation with high achieving peers has a nontrivial link to college enrollment, even after considering individual, peer, and school-level factors. This suggests that school policies aimed at encouraging student exposure to high achieving peers in EAs could have an important impact on a student's later educational outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, 2032 JFSB, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA; Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA. Electronic address: Benjamin_gibbs@byu.edu.
authors.forename: Benjamin G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Gibbs
authors.affiliation: Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA.
authors.forename: Lance D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Erickson
authors.affiliation: Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA.
authors.forename: Mikaela J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Dufur
authors.affiliation: The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miles
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: College Enrollment; Extracurricular activities; GPA; Peers