When I look back at my afterschool experiences, I see many predictors that can explain my participation. A child characteristic that I can relate to is that a child who participates in an activity in middle school is more likely to participate in that same activity in high school. This is because of their previous experience and exposure to the sport. Each sport I participated in middle school I ended up playing in high school because I felt comfortable because it was something I had already done before. I would not agree with the parental characteristics because even though I was considered low income and my parents did not have a college degree, I still participated in structured activities like sports. My mom did not have a college degree and my dad did not even graduate from high school yet I still was involved in travel softball. Yes, we were considered low income but my parents found a way to allow me the opportunity to participate in structured activities. I can definitely relate with the peers and friendship networks. Much of the reasons I played sports was because I got to participate in these sports with my friends. Having friends and peers in the same activities helps to boost participation. Looking at school and community factors, I would definitely say that neighborhood safety played a role in my parents enrolling us in sports and other community activities. If our community was not safe, my parents would not have placed us in sports. They possibly would have looked in other communities to see if they could enroll us there. Living in a safe community helped promote participation for me and others around me.
I believe the activities and programs that I was involved in as a kid made a huge contribution to my development. It helped me to stay busy and out of trouble. That was the main reason my parents enrolled us in sports and other after school activities. According to Mahoney, “Research suggests that negative outcomes related to self-care such as deviant peer affiliations, substance use, and peer pressure may be more apparent for girls than for boys” (pg 191). I definitely agree with this statement. When I was 14, I decided to take a break from after school activities. During this time, I found myself overwhelmed with peer pressure. Both of my parents were working so I was able to do whatever I wanted after school and they never knew. I started getting into trouble and doing things I normally would have never done. When I look at my own experiences versus my brother’s experiences, I definitely agree that I dealt with more peer pressure than he ever has. Had I been involved in after school activities or an afterschool program during that time, I’m sure I would not have fallen prey to peer pressure. Another factor that played a part in my afterschool participation was religion. I attended Catechism every week and mass on the weekends. Simpkins explains, “If there was a scheduling conflict between adolescents’ catechism classes and another activity, such as a sport practice, adolescents attended the catechism classes” (pg 715). My parents put religion first. If sports or other activities conflicted, church came first. This was a positive thing overall because I was still involved in something positive regardless if I was at Catechism or softball practice.