Communities and social networks within them play an important role in determining many outcomes, including areas such as job searching, criminality and civic participation. Previous research shows that in racially heterogeneous communities, adults are less likely to take part in group activities (Alesina and La Ferrara 2000; La Ferrara 2002). This research aims to assess whether the same is true for adolescents in schools. There are numerous reasons why adolescents’ participation matters. Taking part in voluntary group activities through increased transmission of knowledge, social norms and development of skills, may positively affect human capital, adolescents’ schooling and labour market success (Putnam 1998).
Due to a number of factors this examination may provide results not in line with previous studies focused on adults’ participation. One is that adults and adolescents may have different preferences regarding group membership and composition. For example, adolescents may be more likely to adjust to a multi-racial community and be willing to participate irrespectively of its racial fragmentation. Another factor is the difference in the size and type of communities. Schools or grade cohorts, when compared to neighbourhoods, are arguably more organised and offer significantly more interaction and opportunities to participate in various group activities. The data used in this research, the Add Health survey, allows looking at participation in extracurricular school activities that is most likely to have a positive effect on an adolescent’s future.
The activities include participation in various organisations and clubs such as: debate team, computer club, newspaper, student council, honour society, language and math club. What further differentiates this research is that the data set makes it possible to focus the analysis on relatively small communities, limiting the possibility that there is a significant amount of sorting within a given community, for example a racially heterogeneous community having relatively homogenous schools with respect to race. In this study the issue of selection into school is carefully addressed by using within school variation between grade cohorts. The rich set of variables that the data set contains makes it possible to control for a number of factors such as specific health problems and network effects that have not been accounted for in previous studies.
It is expected that this analysis will widen general understanding of the effects of communities’ racial composition on group membership. For economists, participation is an interesting subject for a number of reasons, including the role it plays in the formation of human and social capital, that have been shown to have a wide range of economic effects ranging from education, delinquency and criminal behaviour to job searching success (Jackson 2006; Calvó-Armengol, Patacchini and Zenou 2009; Ioannides and Soetevent 2007). Participation of adults is a well-investigated subject largely thanks to its importance for voting and political movements. Being part of a group is argued to also have other economic effects including transmission of knowledge and the development of trust (Benabou 1996; Romer 1986 and La Porta et al, 1997).
The role of ethnic conflict and racial composition in determining participation-related concepts was also investigated by a number of studies including Alesina, Baqir and Easterly (2000); Goldin and Katz (1999); Glaeser et al. (2000) and La Ferrara (2002). In line with the previously mentioned research by Alesina and La Ferrara (2000), is the last study by La Ferrara, looking at income inequality and the incentives to join economic groups. The investigation also finds evidence that heterogeneity at community level in Tanzania leads to lower levels of participation.
In summary, previous research suggests that community composition with respect to race and ethnicity should play an important role in determining adolescents’ participation. However, it provides little insight as to whether similar arguments apply
to small and organised communities such as schools and adolescents within them. Majority of previous empirical investigations studied how the characteristics of adults impact on decision whether or not to participate in various groups.
The evidence on how adolescents’ participation affects performance in school and academic attainment is mixed. This is largely due to limited data availability and endogeneity issues that will be discussed in the next section. Participation in extracurricular activities improves teamwork skills and self-discipline (Spreitzer 1994). Taking part in high school sport activities also improves chances of securing funding towards higher education tuition fees through sport scholarships offered by colleges for best performers. However, participation is likely to reduce the amount of time individuals spend on learning and studying. This ambiguity is reflected in the literature. A number of studies identifies a significant positive link between participation in school extracurricular activities, including sports, and schooling outcomes (Lipscomb 2006, Barron et al. 2000). Other studies provide evidence that after addressing the issue of unobservables the effects of participation are significantly reduced and in some cases insignificant (Edie and Ronan 2001). Rees and Sabia (2010) use instrumental variables approach (IV) to address endogeneity issues and conclude that the effects of sport participation on school performance are insignificant. However, the authors find some evidence of positive effects of sport participation on aspirations to attend college in the future.
This paper’s main focus is on the characteristics of communities of adolescents and interactions within them. The following hypothesis, based on evidence from previous studies, will be tested: because individuals have a preference to interact with similar types, in a setting where the likelihood of interaction with other races is high, the levels of participation are expected to be considerably lower. In particular for memberships in groups that require a significant level of interaction.
The remaining part of this analysis is structured as follows: in the next section the data set is described and descriptive statistics are presented; followed by empirical analysis where the impact of communities’ racial composition on individuals’ participation is estimated; followed by summary.