TY - JOUR
T1 - Middle school dropout? Enrollment trends in the California 4-H Youth Development Program
AU - Russell, Stephen T.
AU - Heck, Katherine E.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the 4-H Center for Youth Development, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California Cooperative Extension. The authors thank Carole MacNeil and Pat Day for access to the data, Chris Hanson for his assistance in creating the dataset, and Stephen Hamilton for a conversation that stimulated this investigation.
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - There is a widespread belief that youth drop out of youth development programs during the middle school years. Alternative explanations for the smaller number of adolescent program participants have yet to be explored. We examine age trends in program enrollment using data from over 221,000 youth enrolled in the California 4-H Youth Development Program from 1992 to 2002. We include sex, race/ethnicity, rural/urban residence, and project participation as predictors of dropout. Our results indicate that the peak in enrollment in early adolescence that is observable from annual enrollment data can be accounted for by stable and high enrollment turnover before age 11, followed by increased program dropout and fewer new enrollments. These findings have implications for explanations of youth program participation and for youth development program enrollment strategies, both for the 4-H Youth Development program and for youth programs in general.
AB - There is a widespread belief that youth drop out of youth development programs during the middle school years. Alternative explanations for the smaller number of adolescent program participants have yet to be explored. We examine age trends in program enrollment using data from over 221,000 youth enrolled in the California 4-H Youth Development Program from 1992 to 2002. We include sex, race/ethnicity, rural/urban residence, and project participation as predictors of dropout. Our results indicate that the peak in enrollment in early adolescence that is observable from annual enrollment data can be accounted for by stable and high enrollment turnover before age 11, followed by increased program dropout and fewer new enrollments. These findings have implications for explanations of youth program participation and for youth development program enrollment strategies, both for the 4-H Youth Development program and for youth programs in general.
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U2 - 10.1080/10888690801910476
DO - 10.1080/10888690801910476
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:51249096294
SN - 1088-8691
VL - 12
SP - 1
EP - 9
JO - Applied Developmental Science
JF - Applied Developmental Science
IS - 1
ER -