Extracurricular activities make a positive difference in the lives of rural youths, but the impact of those experiences are different for boys and girls, says a new study.
For example, rural male adolescents who are involved in church and arts/music are more likely to have a higher GPA than girls in those communities who are involved in those same activities. Girls who participate on sports teams, however, are more likely to have a better GPA than their male counterparts.
“Several of these findings differ from previous organized-activity research on urban and suburban youth, indicating that involvement in organized activities provides unique developmental benefits for adolescent boys and girls living in a rural context,” according to the study by West Virginia University researchers and published in the Journal of Research in Rural Education.
