From early childhood adversity to education at age 22 years: Pathways through extracurricular activities and other high school experiences

Adverse childhood experiences in early childhood, or birth to age 5 years, may be especially disruptive to developmental trajectories of academic achievement and attainment. Youth who demonstrate academic resilience despite early adversity likely have benefited from protective factors, such as positive high school experiences. Participation in extracurricular activities in high school contributes to school achievement and postsecondary expectations; these factors may be particularly meaningful as protective factors for youth exposed to early adversity. We investigated pathways from early childhood adversity and achievement through high school experiences to predict educational attainment and aspiration in emerging adulthood, using a sample of 2985 youth from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS; Reichman et al., 2001 ). Results indicated that both resource-related adversity and family-related adversity had significant direct and indirect associations predicting worse educational outcomes. More involvement in extracurricular activities predicted both higher attainment and aspirations at age 22 years. Contrary to expectations, we did not find a significant moderating effect of extracurricular activities on the link between resource adversity and later educational outcomes. We encourage future efforts to prevent and address early adversity and to support positive school experiences for students at risk to reduce long-term educational disparities.