High School Athletic and Extracurricular Participation Related to Academic Achievement and School Engagement

Abstract

The current study looked at how participation in athletics and/or other extracurricular activities correlated with academic achievement and student engagement in high school. The study involved 150 college students reporting about their high school experiences. Retrospective data points were used to look for significant correlations. Athletic participation and extracurricular participation were measured using author-created checklists. Grade point average (GPA) also was measured using self-reported data. The Behavioral-Emotional-Cognitive School Engagement Scale (BEC-SES) measured school engagement (Li, 2010). No data were found to support the study’s 6 hypotheses. However, it was found that students who participated in high school sports had higher Emotional School Engagement scores than students who participated in community sports or did not participate in sports. Females had higher self-reported GPAs than males. Finally, females had higher BEC-SES Total, Behavioral, and Cognitive School Engagement scores than males.