Swedish young people’s after-school extra-curricular activities: attendance, opportunities and consequences

Abstract

Recent research demonstrates that, along with the family, the peer group and the school environment, extra-curricular activities are important contexts for young people’s educational and social development. This article is the result of a survey conducted with a sample of young people in their last year of compulsory school in Sweden and examines both who has access to the different types of extra-curricular activity and the consequences of their participation in the various programmes. As the results indicate, after controlling for respondents’ class and migrant background, their gender and their health, there are positive and significant associations between participation in certain types of activity (sporting, cultural and religious) on the one hand, and students’ school performance and educational expectations on the other. However, attendance at a less-organised activity (youth recreation centres or fritidsgård) shows a negative association with these outcomes. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the gender, social class and migrant background of students affect their rate of participation in many of these activities.