Extracurricular involvement creates an outlet for adolescents to gain skills and resources that assist them in overcoming certain risks. Resiliency theory is applied to study the promotive effects of extracurricular activity involvement as this may help Polish youth overcome risks for alcohol use. Our data include 2903, 13 and 14 year old Polish adolescents. We use regression analysis to test the main and interaction effects of extracurricular involvement after adjusting for demographics and social influences. Sex differences are examined within the resilience framework. We found protective effects of extracurricular involvement for males, but only a compensatory effect for females. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.
Keywords: Alcohol use; Extracurricular involvement; Resiliency theory.
Copyright © 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.