Appendices 53• Aggression—Three statements about whether youth talkback to adults, argue and have a bad temper, such as“Other people my age think I have a bad temper.”In addition to the constructs, we looked at two outcomesthat were measured through individual items on the survey.• Shyness—One statement: “I am shy.”• Community service—One question: “How often haveyou participated in community service in the pastfour months?” (Asked only on the follow-up survey inSpring 2008.)Academic Success 4Youth’s academic success outcomes were measured througha series of questions on the baseline and final surveys. Eightoutcomes were measured in this area. The following is a listof the five academic success constructs we measured, with asample of the type of statements to which youth respondedwithin each construct. Each construct has a possible valuefrom 1=not very true to 4=very true, with 4 being the mostfavorable.• School liking—Three statements that focus on how youthfeel about school, such as “I look forward to going toschool every day.”• School effort—Four statements that focus on how hardyouth work in school, such as “I work very hard on myschoolwork.”• Importance of school—Seven statements regarding howimportant school is to the youth, such as “Being a goodstudent is important to me.”• Teacher connectedness—Five statements that focus onhow the youth get along with teachers, such as “I usuallylike my teachers.”• Academic confidence—Five statements about how comfortableyouth are with their ability to do schoolwork,such as “I’m certain I can master the skills taught inschool this year.”Youth also reported on three academic success outcomesthat we measured through single questions on the survey:report card grades, times skipping school and times beingsuspended.Healthy Lifestyles 5Youth’s healthy lifestyle outcomes were measured througha series of questions on each of the youth surveys. Threeof the healthy lifestyle outcomes were measured by askingyouth a series of questions that formed healthy lifestyle constructs.The first construct has a possible value from 1 to 4,with 1=not very true to 4=very true, while the second andthird each has a possible value from 1 to 5, with 1=none ofthem to 5=all of them.• Future connectedness—Five statements about how muchyouth think about their future and how their currentactivities help them get prepared for the future, such as“I do things outside of school to prepare for my future.”• Positive peers—Eight statements about how many oftheir friends did certain favorable things (for example,being involved in school clubs, activities or sports, orthinking it is important to work hard in school), suchas “Number of friends who think it is important to workhard on school work.”• Negative peers—Eight statements about how many oftheir friends did certain unfavorable things (for example,cheating on school tests or pressuring youth to drinkalcohol), such as “Number of friends who have brokeninto a car or building to steal something.”In addition to these constructs, we asked youth about healthrelatedbehaviors, measured with single items:• On each survey, youth were asked how many days in theprevious week they had participated in vigorous aerobicexercise for at least 20 minutes, from 0=0 days to 7=7days.• They were also asked about contact they may have hadwith law enforcement in the 12 months before eachsurvey. Youth were asked how many times they had beenstopped by the police, how many times they had beenarrested and how many times they had been put on probation.In addition, youth were asked if they had ever hada physical fight resulting in injuries that required medicalattention, and if they had ever carried a weapon.• We also asked youth about their level of involvement withspecific risk behaviors: smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol,smoking marijuana, taking OxyContin, taking ecstasy,taking steroids, sniffing inhalants and having sexual intercourse.For those who’d ever had sex, we asked whetherthey’d used a condom at most recent intercourse.Involvement of surveyed youth was particularly low onthe last four drug-use items. For analysis, these items werecombined into a single item labeled other drugs.
<strong>Making</strong> <strong>Every</strong> <strong>Day</strong> <strong>Count</strong>: Boys & Girls Clubs’ Role in Promoting Positive Outcomes for <strong>Teens</strong> 54Appendix D:Participation and EngagementChapter III describes the youth’s participation in the Clubsover the 30-month evaluation period and presents a descriptionof what else the teens do with their time, includingprograms and activities they do both within and outside ofthe Clubs. The tables presented in this appendix offer additionaldetail to the findings discussed in Chapter III.Table D.1 displays the frequency and duration of attendancefor the 322 youth who completed both baseline and followupsurveys in comparison to the frequency and duration ofthe 422 youth who completed only the baseline survey. Thetable shows that the rates are very similar, suggesting thatthe sample that was followed represents a broader range ofparticipants than just those who attend regularly.Barriers to Club AttendanceWe considered the possibility that the youth who have limitedinvolvement in Clubs may have their time dominatedby competing responsibilities, such as homework and caringfor younger siblings, or by passive pursuits such as watchingtelevision. Table D.2 shows a comparison of how much timeyouth who have been to the Clubs in the past four monthsspend on these responsibilities and activities versus thosewho have not been to the Clubs.Relative to those who had been to a Club in the past fourmonths, a significantly higher percentage of youth who hadnot attended reported on the final survey that they werespending time caring for siblings or working for pay. Incontrast, both groups of youth reported spending similaramounts of time doing their homework and watching TV.Table D.1Comparison of Attendance Patterns at Boys & Girls Clubs for YouthWith and Without a Spring 2008 Survey322 Youth Surveyed at Baselineand Follow Up422 Youth Surveyed at BaselineFrequency:Number of days attended between October 2005and March 20080–11 days 10.2% 11.1%12–51 days 16.5% 16.6%52–121 days 21.1% 21.1%122–243 days 22.1% 22.3%244–365 days 17.4% 16.1%366–576 days 12.7% 12.8%Duration:Months with at least one day of attendancebetween October 2005 and March 20080 months 1.9% 1.9%1–4 months 7.4% 9.0%5–7 months 10.9% 11.6%8–12 months 16.5% 19.0%13–17 months 14.6% 14.7%18–26 months 27.0% 24.2%27–30 months 21.7% 19.7%Source: Clubs’ attendance data over 30-month evaluation period.
Change language