Contexts and Correlates of Out-of-School Activity Participation Among Low-Income Urban Adolescents

Urban adolescents living in poverty, in contrast to their wealthier suburban peers, are exposed to a variety of risk factors that may compromise their psychosocial development. These risks include community violence, under-resourced schools, and low parental education. Historically, researchers and policymakers concerned with youth development have focused on understanding the negative individual-level outcomes associated with poverty, such as delinquency, school dropout, and teen pregnancy. More recent work, however, has examined the characteristics of contexts in which “at-risk” urban youth are embedded that actually facilitate resilience or competence (e.g., Luthar, Cicchetti, Seidman Mahoney, 2000; Mahoney & Cairns, 1997).