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Research Description

Overview and Components The study of Los Angeles (LA) County High School Sports Programs was undertaken to examine the availability of extracurricular sports programs at schools and the impact of participation in these programs on youth involvement in risky behaviors.
Start Date 2002
Scope local
Type after school, summer/vacation, weekend
Location urban
Setting public school
Participants high school students
Number of Sites/Grantees 175 schools (160 neighborhood, 15 magnet)
Number Served Schools participating in the study had an average enrollment of 2,502 youth.
Study Details The study involved a survey of LA County public high schools to document the availability of and youth participation in sports programs. It also examined school characteristics related to program availability and youth outcomes of participation related to risky behavior.
Funding Level $217,000 (total for study)
Funding Sources Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Researchers RAND Corporation
Research Profiled Availability of High School Extracurricular Sports Programs and High-Risk Behaviors
Research Planned None.
Report Availability Cohen, D. A., Taylor, S. L., Zonta, M., Vestal, K. D., & Schuster, M. A. (2007). Availability of high school extracurricular sports programs and high-risk behaviors. Journal of School Health, 77, 80–86.


Contacts

Research Deborah A. Cohen
Senior Natural Scientist
RAND
1776 Main St.
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Tel: 310-393-0411, ext. 7775
Email: dcohen@rand.org
Profile Updated July 2, 2007

Research Study: Availability of High School Extracurricular Sports Programs and High-Risk Behaviors


Research Description

Research Purpose To document the availability of and youth participation in schools’ extracurricular sports programs and to examine school characteristics related to program availability and youth outcomes related to risky behavior.
Research Design Non-Experimental: Surveys were sent to all 198 LA County neighborhood (generally serving youth from the surrounding census tracts) and magnet (serving youth from across the district) public high schools. School principals were asked to arrange for staff overseeing sports programs to complete the survey. Schools unable to complete a full survey were given a shorter survey, which did not include participation questions. Overall, 175 schools (160 neighborhood, 15 magnet) completed a survey (94 long, 81 short). Schools had an average enrollment of 2,502 youth. Across schools, 42% of youth were disadvantaged (free or reduced price lunch program participants whose parent[s] lacked a high school diploma), and 51% were Latino. There were no significant demographic or background differences between schools completing long versus short surveys.
Data Collection Methods Secondary Source/Data Review: The following were collected: 2000 Census data on neighborhood racial/ethnic composition and poverty levels; LA County Department of Health Services data for 15–19 year-olds in school attendance areas on 2002 birth and 1999–2001 sexually transmitted disease (STD, specifically gonorrhea and chlamydia) rates; LA Police Department juvenile (ages 20 and younger) arrest rate data for 62 of the 160 school attendance areas; and Department of Education data on the percentages of each school’s youth who were disadvantaged and those who had at least 1 parent with a college degree.

Surveys/Questionnaires: The survey asked respondents to report which sports their school offered, the number of boys and girls participating in each sport, and school characteristics.
Data Collection Timeframe Surveys were administered in 2002.


Findings:
Formative/Process Findings

Program Context/Infrastructure Of the 24 sports programs available across schools, 12 were offered by at least three quarters of the schools. The sports offered most often were basketball (98%), soccer (96%), softball (95%), and volleyball (95%). On average, schools offered 14 sports programs, ranging from 3 schools offering only 1 sports program to 3 others offering more than 21 sports programs.

On average, larger schools and magnet schools offered significantly more sports programs than smaller or neighborhood schools (p = .003 and p = .015, respectively); schools with greater percentages of disadvantaged youth had significantly fewer programs (p = .009).
Recruitment/Participation On average, 31% of each school’s students (34% of boys, 26% of girls) participated in sports programs.

The association between the number of sports programs offered and the extent of sports participation was substantial. For example, among schools offering 13 or fewer sports programs, the average school reported 14% of students participating in those programs while in schools offering 16 or more programs, the average school reported 31% of students participating.

Controlling for the number of sports programs, schools with the following characteristics had higher participation rates: fewer students (p = .003); higher academic performance (p = .012), higher percentages of youth with college-educated parents (p = .106), higher percentages of girls (p = .089), and lower percentages of Asian/Pacific Islander (p = .002) or Latino (p = .024) youth compared to White youth.


Summative/Outcome Findings

Prevention Controlling for neighborhood race/ethnicity and poverty, neighborhoods in which schools had more sports programs had significantly lower juvenile arrest (p = .017) and teen birth (p = .018) rates. For juvenile arrests, neighborhoods in which schools offered 13 or fewer sports programs had an average rate of 30.9 arrests per 10,000 youth, while neighborhoods in which schools offered 16 or more programs had an average rate of 1.7 arrests per 10,000 youth. Neighborhoods in which schools offered 11 or fewer programs had teen birth rates of 26 per 1,000 youth, while neighborhoods with schools offering 17 or more programs had rates of 19 births per 1,000 youth.

Neighborhoods that had schools with higher sports program participation rates had lower STD rates, though this trend was not statistically significant: neighborhoods with schools in which 15–25% of students participated in sports had an average neighborhood STD rate of 5.3 per 1,000 youth, while neighborhoods with schools in which 35–45% of students participated had rates of 2.2 per 1000. No relationship was found between sports participation rates and neighborhood juvenile arrest and teen birth rates.

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