Essay --

The purpose that this paper serves is to analyze and incorporate the conclusions of four articles and examine the link between extracurricular activities and self-esteem in adolescents. The article is broken into four separate sections. First, the definitions of both the independent variable and the dependent variable will be identified and the hypothesis will be stated. Next, the findings from the four articles will be thoroughly summarized. Third, the findings from the articles will be incorporated into the paper with potential sources for the results. Lastly, the strengths, limitations, and recommendations for possible research in the future of each article will be offered. Following the paper I will present my personal reflection of the research and transcription of this paper. The independent variable is the involvement in extracurricular activities and the dependent variable is the self-perception. Kort-Butler, and Hagewen (2010) examined the relationship between the involvement in extracurricular activities of adolescents and self-esteem in early adulthood. The study included 3 times with roughly 1-2 years between times 1 and 2, and 5-6 years between times 2 and 3 each. After all three trials the sample consisted of 5,399 individuals (47.8% male). During the first time period the mean age was 15.47 years old, while the age during the final time was roughly 26 years old. With 5,399 individuals with 3 visits each, there were a total of 16,197 visits. They studied the effects of linear age on self-esteem. This was assessed by the response of each individual to 4 questions. The same 4 questions were given at each of the three time periods. School-based extracurricular involvement was assessed by a questionnaire during t... ... events or extracurricular activities that are being assessed. I learned a great deal about research and writing during this paper. Being thorough in your research is key. Researchers use many different titles for the same topic and you may not find an article that would be perfect for your paper if you don’t type in all of the different potential key words. I also learned a lot about gender differences with regard to the topic. Boys and girls have very different views about what factors contribute to their self-perception. Lastly, the results sections in these articles were quite confusing and could easily be misread. It is important to carefully read and reread each section. These articles taught me that it is important that adolescent children are involved in sports or extracurricular activities in order to provide them with a better perception of themself.