This article examines early childhood antecedents of adults' political orientation. Using longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we investigate associations between parenting beliefs and behaviors, child temperament, and attachment security during early childhood in relation to adult political ideology and party affiliation at age 26 years (N = 1,364). Young children's fearful temperament and anxious attachment security, as well as mothers' authoritarian parenting beliefs in early childhood, predicted conservative political orientations at age 26. Children's abilities to focus attention and avoidant attachment security predicted liberal orientations. These findings provide evidence that multiple aspects of early developmental experience-temperament, parenting, and infant-mother attachment-are associated with later political orientations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Purpose

High levels of adolescent substance use are linked to lower academic achievement, reduced schooling, and delinquency. We assess four types of out-of-school time (OST) contexts--unsupervised time with peers, sports, organized activities, and paid employment--in relation to tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use at the end of high school. Other research has examined these OST contexts in isolation, limiting efforts to disentangle potentially confounded relations.

Methods

Longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 766) examined associations between different OST contexts during high school and substance use at the end of high school.

Results

Unsupervised time with peers increased the odds of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use, whereas sports increased the odds of alcohol use and decreased the odds of marijuana use. Paid employment increased the odds of tobacco and alcohol use. Unsupervised time with peers predicted increased amounts of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use, whereas sports predicted decreased amounts of tobacco and marijuana use and increased amounts of alcohol use at the end of high school.

Conclusions

Although unsupervised time with peers, sports, and paid employment were differentially linked to the odds of substance use, only unsupervised time with peers and sports were significantly associated with the amounts of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use at the end of high school. These findings underscore the value of considering OST contexts in relation to strategies to promote adolescent health. Reducing unsupervised time with peers and increasing sports participation may have positive impacts on reducing substance use.

The last 40 years have been marked by a growing appreciation of organized afterschool activities as a developmental context, with evidence that these activities are linked to academic, social, and behavioral outcomes at least in the short term. In this chapter, we focus on research that builds on these earlier advances to extend afterschool research in two areas that are critical to the future of this field. First, we feature research that examines organized activities longitudinally from kindergarten through the end of high school, enabling us to study organized activities in relation to academic, social-emotional, behavioral, and health outcomes in both the short-run and long-run, including into adulthood. We then turn to a second advance: research focused on organized activities that serve minoritized children and adolescents. These studies identify the barriers minoritized youth often face and how activities can be designed to support their positive development, including efforts to provide culturally responsive programming. Promising directions for future research are presented in a third section.

Introduction

Based on Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory and Bornstein's specificity principle, the purpose of this study was to examine adolescents' time in out-of-school settings as a precursor of three types of problematic substance use in adulthood (i.e., binge drinking, regular marijuana use, and use of illicit drugs).

Method

Adolescents (N = 978) reported the time they spent in four common out-of-school settings at ages 15 and 18: unsupervised time with peers, organized sports, other organized activities, and paid employment. At age 26, participants reported binge drinking, marijuana use, and illicit drug use.

Results and conclusions

Adolescents' time in out-of-school settings during high school predicted age 26 substance use over and above family and adolescent factors, including adolescents' substance use during high school. Adolescents' unsupervised time with peers increased the odds and frequency of binge drinking and regular marijuana use at age 26. Time in high school organized sports increased the odds of binge drinking at age 26, but not marijuana or illicit drug use. Time spent in other organized activities, such as community service and the arts, lowered the odds of illicit drug use whereas paid employment in high school was not related to age 26 substance use. Aligned with Bornstein's specificity principle, time spent in specific out-of-school settings during adolescence were differentially related to substance use problems in early adulthood, with some activities serving as a risk factor and other activities serving as a protective factor for young adults.

Organized activities have been championed as an important youth setting to nurture character development through childhood and adolescence, but scholars have yet to document the state of research on activities and youth character. Using guidelines from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Statement (PRISMA, Moher et al., PLoS Med 6(7):e1000097, 2009), this study conducts an extensive review of previous research in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the various ways in which organized activities support moral and civic character development. Through database and backward and forward citation searches, 65 studies were deemed eligible between 1999 and 2019, with 44 studies on civic character and 21 studies on moral character. Relations between organized activity participation and character development were assessed by five key dimensions of activity participation (intensity, duration, breadth, type and quality of the activity), and by youth characteristics (e.g., age, family income, gender, motivation/engagement in the activity). Review of the character literature provides evidence for the positive relations between organized activities and youth’s concurrent and long-term moral and civic character development. For civic studies, findings suggest that the greater the intensity, duration, and breadth of participation, the more favorable youth character outcomes. For moral character, the type and quality of the activity setting appear to be particularly important for supporting development. Overall, findings suggest that moral and civic character development ought to be considered and intentionally nurtured within activities as two separate, yet complimentary dimensions of interpersonal character. Future research is needed that explores various mechanisms that explain these associations and examines variations by characteristics of youth.

This study examines associations between stimulating-responsive social interactions with mothers and nonparental childcare providers during the first 3 years of life and children's vocabulary and mathematics skills through age 15 (N = 1,364). Additive relations were found in which more stimulating-responsive interactions with mothers and with caregivers were linked to higher mathematics achievement in childhood and adolescence. More stimulating-responsive early interactions with mothers were also associated with larger child vocabularies through age 15. Synergistic relations, consistent with the dual-risk hypothesis, also were found. Children whose early interactions with both mothers and caregivers were low in stimulation and responsivity had substantially lower mathematics skills. Implications for early childhood interventions and policies are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

This longitudinal study examined associations between three after-school program quality features (positive staff–child relations, available activities, programming flexibility) and child developmental outcomes (reading and math grades, work habits, and social skills with peers) in Grade 2 and then Grade 3. Participants (n = 120 in Grade 2, n = 91 in Grade 3) attended after-school programs more than 4 days per week, on average. Controlling for child and family background factors and children’s prior functioning on the developmental outcomes, positive staff–child relations in the programs were positively associated with children’s reading grades in both Grades 2 and 3, and math grades in Grade 2. Positive staff–child relations also were positively associated with social skills in Grade 2, for boys only. The availability of a diverse array of age-appropriate activities at the programs was positively associated with children’s math grades and classroom work habits in Grade 3. Programming flexibility (child choice of activities) was not associated with child outcomes.

According to bioecological theory, children’s experiences in one developmental setting are meaningful for their adjustment in other settings. In the current study, the quality of children’s relationships with classroom teachers, afterschool program staff, and mothers in 1st grade (n = 137) were examined in relation to their academic, social-emotional, and behavioral adjustment at school in 2nd grade. Closeness and conflict varied across these three adult-child relationships. Our hypotheses were partially supported such that higher teacher-child conflict in 1st grade related to poorer work habits and cooperation in 2nd grade. More conflict with afterschool staff in 1st grade was associated with lower social self-control and more externalizing behaviors at school in 2nd grade. Closeness was not related to children’s adjustment in 2nd grade. These findings highlight the potential negative implications of conflictual relationships with teachers and afterschool staff for children’s school adjustment.

Longitudinal data are used to examine whether effects of early child care are amplified and/or attenuated by later parenting. Analyses tested these interactions using parenting as both a categorical and continuous variable to balance power and flexibility in testing moderation. The most consistent finding was that maternal sensitivity during adolescence accentuated the association between child care quality and adolescent academic-cognitive skills at age 15 years when maternal sensitivity during adolescence was high. This interaction was obtained in analyses with maternal sensitivity as both a categorical and continuous variable. Relations between early child care hours and adolescent behavioral outcomes also were moderated by maternal sensitivity, with longer child care hours predicting more impulsivity and externalizing at age 15 when maternal sensitivity during middle childhood, scored as a categorical variable, was low to moderate and when maternal sensitivity during adolescence, scored as a continuous variable, was lower. These findings suggest that some child care effects are moderated by subsequent parenting and that this moderation may take both linear and nonlinear forms.

Relations between early child care and adolescent functioning at the end of high school (EOHS; M age = 18.3 years) were examined in a prospective longitudinal study of 1,214 children. Controlling for extensive measures of family background, early child care was associated with academic standing and behavioral adjustment at the EOHS. More experience in center-type care was linked to higher class rank and admission to more selective colleges, and for females to less risk taking and greater impulse control. Higher quality child care predicted higher academic grades and admission to more selective colleges. Fewer hours in child care was related to admission to more selective colleges. These findings suggest long-term benefits of higher quality child care, center-type care, and lower child-care hours for measures of academic standing at the EOHS. (PsycINFO Database Record