Extracurricular Activities and Friendship Selection

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses extracurricular activities and friendship selection. Extracurricular activities within the school provide settings in which adolescents can meet one another, participate in activities of common interest, and learn and practice skills other than strictly academic ones. Although these activities are formally controlled and sanctioned by the school, they differ in important ways from curricular settings for student interaction. Participation in extracurricular activities may influence friendship selection in two ways. (1) Extracurricular activities provide additional information about the interests, skills, and personalities of the participants, which may guide the choice of friends. (2) Participation in these activities increases student status. Because friendship choices are more likely to be made to higher status than to lower status students and because participation in extracurricular activities alters student status, participation may affect friendship selection patterns. One major function of extracurricular activities may be to reduce these boundaries between the tracks by permitting students to meet in nonacademic situations. If extracurricular activities serve such a function, then participation should encourage the tolerance of students in differing social positions.