Winter 2008 - Vol. 3 No. 3 - National Association of Extension 4-H ...

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easons given was six. Sixty-three percent of the students gave at least one internal reason fornon-participation and 67% of the students gave at least one external reason for nonparticipation.Finally, 30% of the students gave both internal and external reasons for nonparticipation.Withdrawal interviews indicated that there were six primary reasons that students dropped outof the after-school program as listed in Table 3.Table 3Top Six Reasons for Withdrawal, N=70Reason givenPercentage of students who gaveparticular reason1) Engagement in other non-family oriented27%after-school activities (i.e. dance club)2) Lack of program fidelity 21%3) Engagement in family-related, after-school18%activities (i.e. babysitting siblings)4) Program was too long 17%5) Boredom 16%6) Need for more academic help 15%In Weisman and Gottfredson’s 2001 study, the main reason students gave for dropping out ofthe program was boredom. Boredom, however, was cited by only 16% of the dropouts in thisstudy. Fifteen percent of the dropouts stated that they needed more academic help. Studentsin this category expressed concern over the lack of help in subject areas such as language arts,math, and reading – areas that they were struggling with in school. Moreover, a fraction ofthese students were actually taken out of the after-school program and placed in specializedtutoring programs in order to obtain the help they needed. Although “homework help” was aprogram component sometimes performed alongside tutoring, the majority of students in thisgroup stated that homework help was either not given and/or was not sufficient for theirparticular assignments. A few of the students voiced their concerns over the inability of tutorsand/or program staff to actually help them complete their homework because as one particularstudent stated, “they [the program staff] didn’t know how to do it.” This suggests that programstaff members were not sufficiently trained to assist a student in completing their particularhomework assignments. Altogether, more dropouts indicated that various aspects of the afterschoolprogramming (i.e. concerns listed under program complaints) caused them to drop out(as opposed to the external issues).SummaryThis study found more participant concern regarding the internal workings of the program(internal issues) than external issues. The top six reasons for non-attendance in the ASP were:1. Engagement in non-family-related after-school activities,2. Lack of program fidelity,3. Engagement in family-related after-school activities,4. Program length,
5. Boredom, and6. Lack of quality academic help.Although this study was modest, it speaks to the type of concerns that program dropouts mayface in deciding not to participate in an after-school program.The findings about program complaints suggest that this particular after-school programsuffered from a lack of program fidelity, excitement, and quality academic help; in essence,issues that dealt with program design/structure and implementation. The lack of sufficientlytrained program staff members may have been due to high staff turnover. The total turnoverrate across all five schools was 55%, with one of the schools having a turnover rate as high as75%. Theoretically, these issues should be addressed in the design phase of an after-schoolprogram; however, even careful research and planning may not be able to combat theunpredictable nature of adolescents, their decision-making skills, and their complex familystructure. Additionally, careful planning may not be able to circumvent the tendency ofprogram staff to seek alternative employment, especially if the students in after-schoolprograms are particularly disruptive or display significant behavior problems.ImplicationsProgram implementers face a great challenge. They must balance the needs and wants of notonly the adolescent, but the parent(s) as well. After-school programs and their activities have tobe fun, exciting, academically-oriented, structured, but not too structured, safe, considerate ofthe adolescent’s time, and sensitive to family issues/concerns. With all of these considerationsit will be difficult to completely satisfy every need/want of the adolescent and their families. Itis clear that quality after-school programming is beneficial to the adolescent and their families;however, it is less clear what the most effective strategy is for retention. Additionally, theproblems that BCAP had with program fidelity, structure, and implementation may be unique tothis research and as such, the results may not be generalizable to other students in other afterschoolprograms.Most of the non-family-related after-school activities that the adolescents in this study wereengaged in were clubs of some sort; for instance dance club, chess club, and sports clubs.These activities were structured, adult-supervised, after-school activities. This suggests thatalthough it is common for ASPs to offer a wide variety of activities, it may be more beneficial tooffer a specific, narrow set of age- and gender-specific activities. Likewise, program fidelity iskey in retention efforts; if a program claims to offer a particular activity, then it is important tothe students to be able to participate in that activity. Perhaps this is a good reason to offer aspecific number of activities instead of an extensive number of activities that may or may notmaterialize. The expectation of something that may not materialize may be more detrimentalto the student’s future participation in ASPs than the expectation of certain non-varied activitiesat the ASP.Related to this issue of an adolescent’s time, boredom, the fifth highest reason on the list,manifested itself in a couple different ways. Some of the dropouts we interviewed stated thatbehavioral problems resulted in “time outs,” which affected the ability of all of the students inthe ASP to partake in the unstructured sports and games activities. Other dropouts stated thatthey found the monotony of the activities performed at the ASP to be a problem because theactivities themselves were uninteresting.
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Winter 2008Volume 3 Number 3Editor
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Examining the Potential Unintended
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centered, multidisciplinary approac
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Volume 3, Number 3, Winter 2008Arti
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fostering skill learning and positi
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Table 1Participation in out-of-scho
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ResultsOur analyses were conducted
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watching TV, playing video games or
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Accordingly, this research augments
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Dotterer, A.M., McHale, S.M., & Cro
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A Descriptive View of the 4-H Club
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In this paper, the results of a cro
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section is a set of statements that
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Table 3Experience in the 4-H clubNo
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significantly higher than Caucasian
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p
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This study focused only on the 4-H
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Theokas, C., Lerner, J.V., Phelps,
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potential for reaching audiences, d
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Putting Marketing Concepts into Pra
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2. Find out what others think about
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Diem, K.G. (1994). What do youth li
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Promoting Supportive Relationships
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focused on youth-adult relationship
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Conversely, more modern educational
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perhaps most importantly, the effic
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Organized youth programs, when stru
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likely to internalize the positive
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Ellis, J.M., & Caldwell, L.L. (2005
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Schweinle, A., Meyer, D.K., & Turne
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This study uses the “5 Cs” mode
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ResultsIn this analysis 48 codes we
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Table 3Inductive Codes Classified b
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CompetenceCompetence in organized s
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ecause of him (the coach)…. You d
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practices and competitions, the gir
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Eccles, J.S., & Gootmann, J.A. (Eds
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Smoll, F.L., & Smith, R.E. (2002).
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The present work builds upon that o
Page 88 and 89: MethodSample and Data CollectionAs
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Page 92 and 93: Table 2Paired Sample T-tests Compar
Page 94 and 95: Hypotheses 5 and 6 were tested by c
Page 96 and 97: De Coverly Veale, D.M.W. (1987). Ex
Page 98 and 99: Story, M., Neumark-Sztainer, D., Sh
Page 100 and 101: Volume 3, Number 3, Winter 2008Arti
Page 102 and 103: Cronbach’s Alpha Score For Youth
Page 104 and 105: 12 to 18 years old. Fourteen of the
Page 106 and 107: Therefore, there was a mixed relati
Page 108 and 109: Youth respondents identified two ob
Page 110 and 111: are developed through working in a
Page 112 and 113: Seevers, B.S., & Dormody, T.J. (199
Page 116 and 117: With the many opportunities that yo
Page 118 and 119: meaningfully reduced involving dedu
Page 120 and 121: StaffingXTime/Schedule X X XTrainin
Page 122 and 123: “Involving adults that will allow
Page 124 and 125: “They can't drive or do not have
Page 126 and 127: page in understanding why youth voi
Page 128 and 129: Parker, L. (1999). If all youth ser
Page 132 and 133: However, the literature is mixed in
Page 134 and 135: group was the quality of the progra
Page 136 and 137: Table 1Reasons for Non-Attendance:
Page 140 and 141: The non-family-related activities t
Page 142 and 143: “Catch ‘Em Being Good:”An Ext
Page 144 and 145: In 2001, the WVUES received a schoo
Page 146 and 147: to leverage the resources of the co
Page 148 and 149: 4. Most primary behavior incidents
Page 150 and 151: Recommendations for developing prog
Page 152 and 153: Cross-Cultural UnderstandingThrough
Page 154 and 155: that plague these nations such as p
Page 156 and 157: 2003). Youth leadership training in
Page 158 and 159: • enable these young people to pa
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Page 162 and 163: West Virginia’s Response to theRo
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Page 166 and 167: Table 1Correlations between Planner
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Page 174 and 175: ReferencesBaldwin, C., & Caldwell,
Page 178 and 179: Purpose of StudyThe purpose of this
Page 180 and 181: Students in the High computer gamin
Page 182 and 183: Do Higher Levels of 4-H LeadershipA
Page 184 and 185: IntroductionEmotional Intelligence
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a constructive manner. The group is
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differences in the scores for the 1
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Adaptability include “Reality Tes
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ReferencesAmerican Academy of Pedia
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Healthy Kids, Healthy Families:A Co
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and a half million U.S. youth (ages
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Families. In partnering counties, p
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Healthy Families was then offered a
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Kamberelis, G., & Dimitriadis, G. (
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Change It Up!What Girls Say About R
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In addition, the study summarizes t
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Winter 2008 - Vol. 3 No. 3 - National Association of Extension 4-H ...

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