When Less Is More: School Size and Student Social Participation

Using the theoretical outlines of Barker's (1968) theory of behavior settings, we postulate the existence of structural inducements to the participation of students in the extracurricular activities of the school. Consistent with the predictions of the theory, we find that the extracurricular behavior settings in small schools are under-manned, and in large schools these settings are over-manned. The result of this phenomenon is a strong negative relationship of school size to rates of participation in the behavior settings of the school. In the data we analyze on a representative sample of high schools, size has consistently strong negative effects on rates of participation, but the findings admit to no simple interpretation. The direction and magnitude of the effects vary with the nature of the activity. We suggest that those activities which are highly central to the organization, but which are inelastic in the sense of absorbing further participants (e.g., journalism), show the strongest manning effects; while activities that are both noncentral and inelastic (e.g., debate) show the weakest effects of manning. Further, activities that are low in centrality and high in elasticity (e.g., hobby clubs) illustrate a form of reverse manning-increased rates of participation with increases in school size. The strength of the manning effects we observe, as well as their direction, suggest the need to take into account the structural properties of the school, especially school size, in the investigation of the effects of activity participation on student outcomes.