Extracurricular activities and group belonging as a protective factor in adolescence

In the transition into adulthood, family and school play a critical role protecting the adolescent from engaging in behaviors that could cause mental health problems. Nevertheless, there are other social groups and structured activities that have shown to act as an educational activity and as a protective factor as well. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between belonging to different types of social groups and the positive and negative mental health indicators of Mexican adolescents. Participants were 840 Mexican adolescents ranging between 12 and 17 years old. Results indicated that belonging to artistic and scout groups reported a statistically significant correlation with higher levels of emotional intelligence. Belonging to sport and artistic groups reported a statistically significant correlation with higher levels of resilience. No statistically significant results were found on anxiety, depression, and/or disruptive behaviors. Further research is needed, especially investigating possible predictive and moderating variables.

ResumenEn la transición a la vida adulta, la familia y la escuela juegan un papel protector decisivo para proteger al adolescente de comportamientos que podrían acarrearle problemas de salud mental. No obstante, hay otros grupos sociales y actividades estructuradas que han funcionado como actividades educativas además de como factores protectores. El objetivo de este trabajo ha sido investigar la relación entre la pertenencia a diferentes tipos de grupos sociales y los indicadores positivos y negativos de salud mental de adolescentes mexicanos. Los participantes eran 840 adolescentes mexicanos de edades comprendidas entre los 12 y los 17 años. Los resultados indican que la pertenencia a grupos artísticos y scouts correlacionaba significativamente con elevados niveles de inteligencia emocional. Pertenecer a grupos deportivos y artísticos correlacionaba significativamente con elevados niveles de resiliencia. No se dieron resultados estadísticamente significativos en ansiedad, depresión o conductas problemáticas. Se necesita continuar investigando, sobre todo en las posibles variables predictoras y moderadoras.