Playing to Succeed: The Impact of Extracurricular Activity Participation on Academic Achievement for Youth Involved with the Child Welfare System

We examine the association of structured and unstructured extracurricular activities on academic achievement for youth with a history of child welfare system involvement. Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being II (NSCAW II) and fixed effects ordinary least squares regression models we examine this association for 905 youth aged 11–17 years old. We find that even moderate levels of participation in structured extracurricular activities are associated with improvements in both math and reading achievement. Specifically, moving from non-participation to involvement in structured activities leads to a 4.46-point increase in applied problem solving and a 2.99-point increase in letter-word identification scores, net of the other controls. These findings suggest that children and youth with child welfare system involvement can benefit from participation in structured activities. This finding is significant in light of federal policy recognizing the importance of “normalizing” activities that enhance the well-being of children and youth in the child welfare system.