Planning after-school activities for young adolescents: parents' preferences and needs

Children Today, March-April, 1984 by Anita M. Farel

In order to be more responsive to young adolescents during after-school hours, communities must know what parents want for their children. Since parents' needs and desires have rarely been assessed in a systematic manner, the Center for Early Adolescence in Carrboro, N.C. (see box) conducted a survey involving nearly 1,000 parents with children between the ages of 10 and 14 from 19 sites across the country to address the following questions:

* What do parents want and need for their children during the after-school hours?

* What are the barriers to particiption in after-school activities?

* What do parents worry about during the after-school hours?

The most striking finding of the survey--which was sponsored by the Lilly Endowment and the American Contract Bridge League Charity Foundation--is the similarity of needs and attitudes expressed by a diverse sample of parents. Parents reported that during the after-school hours their children most frequently participate in free play in the neighborhood and in church or synagogue activities, watch television, do household chores or homework and take private lessons. But parents would prefer that their children participate in more after-school activities or organized groups and clubs, and read more.

In part, the need for after-school programs reflect major changes in American family life that have occurred during the past two decades, primarily the increase in mothers who work, wheter in single-parent families or in families where both parents work. More than 14 million children, ages 6 to 13, now have working mothers, 7 million of whom are estimated to be taking care of themselves after school.

While many programs are available for younger children and most older adolescents can be responsible for themselves, few community resources are available for 10- to 14-year-olds, many of whom lack the maturity to care for themselves. The problem is compounded by the reduction in funds for libraries, recreation centers, schools and other sources of after-school activities.

Young adolescents vary so widely in their rates of physical, intellectual and emotional growth that no one solution could, or should, be applied to all of them. For example, some young adolescents take pride in their resourcefulness and independence while their parents are at work; others, however, fear being left on their own.

The variation in emotional, intellectual and physical development in adolescence is reflected in the uncertainty among parents about the degree of supervision needed by this age group. Parents responding to our survey generally agre that their children no longer need supervision after age 16, while virtually all parents agree about the need for supervision for children under age 10. Between the ages of 10 and 15, however, there are diverse opinions about the need for supervision. For example, 95 percent of parents of 10-year-olds but only 15 percent of parents of 16-year-olds believe after-school supervision is necessary for their children. In contrast, 40 percent of parents of 13-year-olds believe aftter-school supervision is necessary while 60 percent feel such supervision is unnecessary. This finding emphasizes that young adolescents are seen neither as children requiring care nor as adults ready to take complete responsibility for their actions. While some parents may think a loosely supervised after-school program is sufficient for their children, other parents with children the same age expect close supervision to be offered. This variation in parents' expectations makes it imperative for an after-school program to assess the attitudes of the particular group of parents for whom services are being offered. Barriers to Particiation

Frequently, after-school activities are offered but do not seem to be used by the families they were designed to serve. We were interested in parents' views of obstacles to participation and asked the reasons why their children are not involved in after-school activities, their ratings of after-school activities in their communities and how they learn about them.

The most frequent reason parents gave to explain their children's lack of involvement was that activities were not offered. In some cases, the cost of existing activities was too high an din others, the barrier was the child himself or herself: The child had no way to get to the activity, did not want to go or was already too busy.

There were some differences in the reasons parents gave according to family income and location of their home. Low-income families cited cost and lack of transportation as barriers to participation, while high-income families said their children were too busy. This last finding indicates that activities, including private lessons, are available to families who can afford them, and reinforces our general impression that programs must be developed that are accessible to and meed the needs of middle- and lower-income families. One parent observed, "There are so few options open that it's absolutely disgusting."