CUHK Education Journal Vol. 19No.2pp. 155-160
© Copyright 1991 by The Chinese University
of Hong Kong Faculty of Education.
Involvement in Extracurricular Activities as Related to
Academic Performance, Personality, and Peer Acceptance
Yee-wang F U N G and Ngai-ying WONG
Chinese University of Hong Kong
A total of 294 Hong Kong secondary school students responded to a questionnaire
evaluating their involvement in extracurricular activities, academic performance,
personality, and acceptance by their classmates. The actual number of extracurricular activities they enrolled and the amount of time they spent on these
activities were recorded. They were also asked if they had taken up duties in these
activities. Results showed that involvement in extracurricular activities was
positively related to academic performance, personality, and peer acceptance.
Introduction
The educational values of extracurricular
activities have long been recognized. While
Confucius used the six arts to teach his students, his
contemporary in the West, Aristotle, advocated
leisure education. In Hong Kong, the need for more
extracurricular activities was stressed after the social
disturbances in 1966 and 1967. Today, a typical
secondary school in Hong Kong provides its
students with about thirty different kinds of
extracurricular activities which are coordinated by a
senior teacher (Fung, Sin, & Mak, 1988).
Advocates of extracurricular activities
(Fretwell, 1931; Fozzard, 1967; Miller, Moyer, &
Patrick, 1956; Sybouts & Krepel, 1984) claim that
this informal aspect of education has a good deal to
contribute to developing good citizens, enabling
pupils to communicate adequately, preparing them
for economic independence, developing healthy
minds in healthy bodies, preparing them for family
life, directing their use of leisure time, developing a
set of moral and ethical values, developing social
competency, discovering special interests and
capacities and developing creative expression.
However, not all of the above claims have been
substantiated by research findings. Research
interests have, over the years, concentrated on the
relationships of participation in extracurricular
activities with socio-economic status, academic
155
Y. W. Fung and N. Y. Wong
achievement and personality development. Some of
these researches produced conflicting results. For
example, in Hong Kong, Fung (1969) found a
negative relationship between participation and
academic achievement whereas Kwok (1986) found
a positive one.
In light of the claim that extracurricular
activities have a good deal to contribute to the
personal and social growth of students, it is
hypothesized that involvement in extracurricular
activities is positively related to academic
performance, personality, and peer acceptance. It is
hoped that this study will add to the information
already collected over the years by researches in this
field of education (Brown, 1988; Christie & Johnsen,
1983; Eash, 1960; Faunce, 1954; Holland & Andre,
1987, 1988; Taylor &Chiogioji, 1988).
Methodology
The sample was drawn from six Form 3 classes
in an aided Chinese secondary school in Hong
Kong, which enjoyed a slightly above average status
in terms of academic standard and provision of
extracurricular activities. In this school,
participation in extracurricular activities was neither
compulsory nor restricted. A total of 294 students
were invited to participate in this study but only 258
were finally accepted because the other 26 did not
follow the instruction strictly enough in responding
to the questionnaire. The subjects comprised 155
boys and 103 girls whose mean age was 14.8, with a
standard deviation of 0.75.
The instrument used for collecting data was a
questionnaire which was administered to the
subjects after school as a group test. It asked the
subjects to do the following:
(1) Evaluate five of your classmates (must be the
same five for all the eight items) sitting near you
in regard to:
(a) the time they spend on extracurricular
activities (number of hours per week);
(b) their attitude towards extracurricular
activities (on a 7-point scale);
(e) their attitude towards learning (on a
7-point scale);
(d) their academic achievement (on a 7-point
scale);
(e) their personality trait: ascendancy (on a
7-point scale);
(f) their personality trait: responsibility (on a
156
7-point scale);
(g) their personality trait: emotional stability
(on a 7-point scale);
(h) their personality trait: sociability (on a
7-point scale).
(2) Name three of your classmates (need not be the
same three for all the four items):
(i) with whom you would like to sit;
(j) with whom you would like to study;
(k) with whom you would like to participate in
extracurricular activities;
(1) by whom you would like to be led.
(3) Report on:
(m) the number of extracurricular activities
you take up this year;
(n) the time you spend on extracurricular
activities (number of hours per week);
(o) your attitude towards extracurricular
activities (on a 7-point scale);
(p) your academic achievement (on a 7-point
scale);
(q) your leadership role in extracurricular
activities (yes/no).
In scoring the questionnaire, medians were used
for Items (a) to (h) and frequencies of being chosen
by others were adopted for Items (i) to (1). Those
respondents who did not evaluate the same five
classmates for Items (a) to (h) were rejected, there
being 26 of them. There were three subjects who had
not been evaluated by their classmates and
consequently received no scores for Items (a) to (h).
These were regarded as missing values.
The data obtained through the questionnaire
were regrouped to form new variables as follows:
(1) Involvement in extracurricular activities, which
included Items (a), (b), (m), (n), (o), and (q).
(2) Academic performance, which included Items
(e), (d), and (p).
(3) Personality, which included Items (e), (f), (g)>
and (h).
(4) Peer acceptance, which included Items (i), (j)>
(k), and (1).
It was found that the items within scales were
highly correlated (p< .001) except between taking up
of duties and time spent on extracurricular activities
(both for reported by one self and reported by
others). The reliabilities (Cronbach's alpha) of the
above four scales were .64, .84, .83 and .89
respectively.
Involvement in Extracurricular Activities
Results
Results obtained in this study are summarized
in Table 1. The subjects on the average participated
in one to two extracurricular activities a week and
spent three to four hours on them. They generally
held a favourable attitude towards extracurricular
activities, scoring about 5 points out of 7. About
22.87% of them helped organize these activities.
With regard to the other measures, it may be
noted that the subjects tended to be slightly more
generous to others than themselves in their ratings.
Thus they generally received fairly high scores for
learning attitude and personality traits. As regards
peer acceptance, about 2.71% of them had been
Table 1.
chosen by six or more classmates on every occasion
and 3.49%, by none.
The zero-order correlations among the four
new variables are presented in Table 2. Results
showed that involvement in extracurricular activities
was positively related to academic performance,
personality and peer acceptance. These correlations,
however, were low and only the one with personality
was statistically significant at the 0.01 level of
confidence. In contrast, the correlations between
academic performance, personality and peer
acceptance were much higher and all of them were
statistically significant at the 0.001 level of
confidence. The one between academic performance
and personality was as high as 0.71.
Means and Standard Deviations of Various Measures
Measure"
Involvement in extracurricular activities
Time spent, reported by others (no. of hours)
Time spent, reported by oneself (no. of hours)
Number of activities (actual number)
Taking up of duties (percentage of students)
Attitude, rated by others
Attitude, rated by oneself
General ability
Academic achievement, rated by others
Academic achievement, rated by oneself
Learning attitude, rated by others
Personality
Ascendancy
Responsibility
Emotional Stability
Sociability
Peer acceptance (percentage of students)
Sitting with
Studying with
Participating in activities with
Being led by
M
S.D.
3.30
4.14
1.54
22.87%
4.77
5.32
2.88
4.32
1.02
4.85
3.96
5.25
.32
.17
.27
5.04
5.16
5.38
5.98
6+b
9.30%
14.34%
7.75%
13.18%
.76
.39
.22
.20
.31
.09
(£
11.63%
17.44%
7.75%
20.93%
a On a 7-point scale except stated otherwise,
b Chosen by six or more classmates.
c Not chosen by any classmate.
157
Y. W. Fung and N. Y. Wong
Further analyses revealed that three sub-scales
of involvement in extracurricular activities, namely,
and significantly related to most of the sub-scales of
academic performance, personality and peer
acceptance.
the number of activities taken up, attitude rated by
others and attitude rated by oneself were positively
Table 2. Correlations Between Extracurricular
Sociability
Activities, General Ability, Personality, and
1 . Involvement in extracurricular activities
2. Academic performance
3. Personality
4. Peer acceptance
2
3
4
.12
.17*
.71**
.12
.45**
44**
n>_2\5,*p<.0\,**p<.00l.
Table 3.
Correlations of Sub-scales of Involvement in Extracurricular Activities with Those of
Academic Performance, Personality and Peer Acceptance.
Involvement in Extracurricular Activities
Time Spent, Time Spent,
Reported
Reported
By Oneself
By Others
Academic Performance
Academic Achievement,
Rated by Others
Academic Achievement,
Rated by Oneself
Learning Attitude,
Rated by Others
Personality
Ascendancy
Responsibility
Emotional Stability
Sociability
Acceptance
Sitting with
Studying with
Participating in
Activities with
Being led by
n>_2\5, */?<.01, **;><.001.
158
Number
of
Activities
Taking
Up of
Duties
Attitude,
Rated by
Others
Attitude,
Rated by
Oneself
0.10
0.05
0.27**
0.09
0.31**
0.19*
0.07
0.03
0.18*
0.15*
0.19*
0.23**
0.06
-0.08
0.20*
0.14
0.32**
0.20*
0.10
0.13
0.11
0.10
0.04
0.04
0.01
0.04
0.27**
0.25**
0.12
0.08
0.06
0.14
0.04
0.06
0.38**
0.42**
0.24**
0.24**
0.19*
0.16*
0.13
0.18*
0.04
0.01
0.05
0.01
0.15
0.29**
0.12
0.12
0.15*
0.17*
0.08
0.06
0.11
0.06
0.15*
0.07
0.05
0.26**
0.10
0.22**
0.19**
0.18* .
0.14
0.07
Involvement in Extracurricular Activities
Table 3 shows that attitude rated by others
correlates positively and significantly at the 0.01
level of confidence with all the eleven sub-scales of
academic performance, personality and peer
acceptance whereas the number of activities taken
up and attitude rated by oneself have similar
relationships with only seven and six of these eleven
sub-scales respectively.
It has already been noted that involvement in
extracurricular
activities was positively and
significantly related to personality as a whole, but
the correlation was rather low. It was only 0.17.
Further investigation showed that most of the
correlations between the sub-scales were low and
statistically insignificant. Only two of them could be
considered as moderately high, namely, the
relationships of attitude rated by others with
ascendancy (r=0.38) and responsibility (r = 0.42).
Apart from these, there were seven correlations
which were positive and statistically significant,
with values ranging from 0.16 to 0.27.
Of the twenty-four positive correlations
between the sub-scales of involvement in
extracurricular activities and peer acceptance, only
eight were statistically significant. Because these
correlations were generally low, ranging from 0.15
to 0.29, they could not produce a significant overall
correlation between these two variables.
Discussion
The hypothesis that involvement in
extracurricular activities is positively related to
academic performance, personality, and peer
acceptance is only partially substantiated by the
findings of the present study. It has been found that
with the exception of the correlation between time
spent on extracurricular activities reported by
oneself and learning attitude rated by others, which
is negative and insignificant, all the rest point to a
positive direction. Of these, twenty-seven are
statistically significant. The positive relationships of
academic performance, personality and peer
acceptance with attitude towards extracurricular
activities are very clear; with the number of activities
taken up, fairly clear; and with taking up of duties
and time spent on activities, not clear.
Judging from the fact that there are generally
higher correlations among sub-scales rated by others
than between these sub-scales and those rated by
oneself, it appears that a halo effect exists in the data
collected. Although this phenomenon does exist, it
has not unduly affected the results as it has not
altered their directions. A comparison of the data in
the "time spent" columns or "attitude" columns will
bring home this point.
The results obtained in the present study seem
to point to the fact that time is not a major factor to
be considered
in involving students in
extracurricular activities. Rather, one should be
more concerned about their attitude towards
extracurricular activities and the number of activities
they participate in. These findings have convincingly
rejected a concept possessed by some teachers and
parents that participation in extracurricular
activities is a waste of valuable studying time. It may
be explained that students do have some spare time,
which, if not used for extracurricular activities, will
be spent in some other ways. In fact, it pays to
involve students in extracurricular activities.
The results also suggest that in involving
students in extracurricular activities, teachers should
make use of every opportunity to help them develop
a sound attitude towards these activities. They
should be encouraged to take an active part in them
and to enjoy them thoroughly. In view of the fact
that the number of activities a student takes up is
positively related to all of the sub-scales of academic
performance and some of the sub-scales of
personality and peer acceptance, teachers should
encourage their students to take up as many
activities as they can manage. In so doing, teachers
of course should monitor their students closely all
the time and spare no effort in giving them positive
advice with regard to the choice of activities.
Finally, the positive and significant correlations
of leadership with the number of activities involved
in, the taking up of duties and academic
achievement may be taken to suggest that it is the
more capable students who participate in more
activities and are more likely to play a leadership
role, but it may also be argued that participation in
more activities and taking up of duties have enabled
the students to develop more fully their potentials.
Conclusion
It has been shown in this study that
involvement in extracurricular activities is positively
related to academic performance, personality, and
peer acceptance. Although the overall correlations
of involvement in extracurricular activities with
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Y. W. Fung and N. Y. Wong
academic performance and peer acceptance have not
been found to be statistically significant, there is
strong evidence showing that genuinely positively
relations do exist between some of the sub-scales.
Further studies may help to clarify these points.
References
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Mr. Fung Yee-wang and Mr. Wong Ngai-ying are both lecturers of the Faculty of Education, the Chinese
University of Hong Kong.
160