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Abstract:
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This thesis explores the relationship between youth participation in school sponsored athletic programs and the incidence of juvenile delinquency in America's schools using the NELS '88 dataset. I use multivariate logistic regression analyses, to isolate the effect of participation in sports on delinquency from the effects of other demographic and school context factors. This study finds that participation in sports is in some instances associated with a small increase in the likelihood of engaging in delinquent and serious delinquent behavior, although the association is not consistently statistically significant across all models. On the contrary, participation in other extracurricular activities is consistently and statistically significantly associated with lower levels of delinquency and serious delinquency. The study also finds that being male and having poor relationships with one's parents and teachers are also significant predictors of higher incidences of delinquent activity. |