Search

Feelings of acceptance within school communities can promote positive psychological outcomes. Despite occurring outside of the classroom, youth who engage in extracurricular activities typically report greater school belonging. Accordingly, we examined the longitudinal effect of extracurricular activities on school belonging and depressed mood in a nationally representative, Australian sample of adolescents (N = 3,850, Mage = 12.41) followed for four years. A random-intercept cross-lagged panel model revealed extracurricular activity participation at Time 1 predicted higher school belonging two years later. In turn, higher school belonging reinforced positive mental health outcomes, by predicting within-person decreases in depressed mood. Further, the direct and indirect effect of extracurricular activities were moderated by community-level socioeconomic status. Participants residing in low socioeconomic status communities garnered the greatest benefit from participating in activities, despite having the lowest levels of participation. Our data highlight how structured leisure time pursuits can promote wellbeing, especially within more disadvantaged communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing policy research has not comprehensively examined the processes by which young people experience social exclusion: that is, the relationships among different risk factors for exclusion, their actual experiences of exclusion, and outcomes that matter for their life chances. Drawing on data from a survey of Australian 13-14 year olds (N=3,535), this paper adapts the Bristol Social Exclusion Matrix to examine pathways from young people's personal and family resources, their experience of participation (school engagement; bullying victimization; teacher support), and their life satisfaction – a predictive indicator of wellbeing and mental health in adulthood. The effects of other characteristics or risk factors for young people's social exclusion (living with disability, being a young carer, identifying as Indigenous, and speaking a language other than English at home), are also examined. This paper shows that experience of exclusion mediates the relationship between young people's personal and family resources and life satisfaction. Controlling for characteristics or risk factors does not change this relationship, suggesting that processes of social exclusion, enacted in interpersonal encounters, are driven by overarching structural factors. These findings are relevant for policy in Australia, and in other countries with similar policy regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]