Abstract:
Many factors contribute to the development and socialization of America's youth including family, community, church, peers, and schools. This paper examines therelationship between high school extracurricular participation and college grade point average. In order to determine whether selected high school extracurricular activities contribute to current academic success in college, 221 students at a medium-sized Midwestern university participated in this study. The degree of extracurricular participation during high school was measured using an anonymous, voluntary, self-administered questionnaire. Extracurricular participation was broken down into separate areas of athletic and non-athletic. Data were collected on sex, race, age, class, athletic and non-athletic participation, and college grade point average. Analyzed data compared current grade point average with previous high school extracurricular participation. The findings suggest that involvement in non-athletic related extracurricular activities has a positive effect on GPA while athletic involvement does not. Additionally, based on information gathered and analyzed, recommendations are offered for future research, as well as a discussion of benefits and limitations to this study.
