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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:
Of all the organized activities teens participate in, faith-based youth groups provide the highest rates of personal and interpersonal growth experiences, according to a new University of Illinois study published in the September issue of Developmental Psychology.
Religious youth groups also stand out from the classroom, part-time jobs, and hanging out with friends as contexts in which such growth occurs, the study of over 2,000 eleventh graders reported.
For example, in the study, 66 percent of students in faith-based activities reported "This activity got me to thinking about who I am," compared to 33 percent in other organized activities, he said.
Forty percent of students in faith-based groups said they "got to know people in the community," compared to 20 percent of students in other organized activities.
The belief system provided by such groups acts as a "glue" that connects teens to their peers and adults in a positive way, said Larson.
The statistics come from Larson's survey of 2,280 eleventh graders in 19 diverse schools, in which Larson and collaborator David M. Hansen used laptop computers to ask the teens about their learning experiences in extracurricular activities.
The six types of growth experiences surveyed were identity work, initiative development, emotional regulation, teamwork and social skills, positive relationships with peers, and positive relationships with adults.
For example, students in organized sports reported high rates of initiative experiences; 61 percent said that they had "learned to push myself" compared to 36 percent in other activities.
These students also reported high rates of learning about regulating their emotions.
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Posted on November 5, 2006 04:34 PM
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