Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Organized sports are one of the most common extracurricular activities for American children. Middle-class parents routinely spend their evenings and weekends shuttling children from piano lessons to hockey practice and dance recitals. In addition to being a fun activity, the perceived benefits of sport participation include improved health, social-emotional learning, and academic achievement.

Yet access to high-quality extracurricular programs is decreasing for low-income children, creating an “activity gap” with wide-ranging implications for millions of children (Afterschool Alliance, 2014). For instance, in 2016, children from households that earned $100,000-plus were almost twice as likely to participate in team sports than children from households that earned less than $25,000 (Aspen Institute, 2017). The academic achievement gap between lower- and higher-income families also has grown 40 percent over the past three decades as access to after-school programming has declined. Lower-income students are more likely to lack access to healthy foods, tutoring assistance, and exhibit behavioral problems in the classroom. After-school programs may be well positioned to fill these gaps, but access to these kinds of programs is often limited in exactly the schools where students might benefit most (Afterschool Alliance, 2014; Rand, 2017).

Our study provides some of the first causal evidence as to whether closing this “activity gap” can improve health, social-emotional, and academic outcomes for low-income children.
We identify the causal effect of sports participation by conducting a randomized control trial of Urban Initiatives’ Work to Play (WTP) sports-based positive youth development program at 19 oversubscribed Chicago Public Schools. The authors randomized 530 interested new participants in 2nd-4th grades to a WTP roster or waitlist control condition at their school.

Urban Initiatives implements WTP at 46 low-income schools across Chicago. The program is free of charge and open to students regardless of skill level. Teams meet before or after school three times a week for 20 weeks split between fall and spring seasons. Each week consists of two practice sessions and one game against a WTP team at another school or team scrimmage. Urban Initiatives implements an intentional curriculum that promotes positive youth development and health through their soccer activities and rewards game time for positive school behavior.

This presentation will focus on the impacts of participating on a WTP team for one or two seasons on body mass index percentile, our primary health outcome. We also will describe planned analysis on the effects of participation on social-emotional learning and academic achievement outcomes.