Extracurricular activity involvement is associated with adolescent suicidality through school belongingness

Abstract

Adolescent sports participants report lower rates of suicidality compared with sports nonparticipants. Few studies have investigated whether this pattern holds for involvement in other types of extracurricular activities, in younger samples, or the mechanisms of these associations. This study investigated the mediating role of school belongingness on the association between types of extracurricular activities and suicidality in developmental age groups within a United States sample (N = 13,977; 11–14 years, 14–16 years, 16–18 years). Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health showed that early adolescent sports participants endorsed lower rates of suicidal ideation. School belongingness mediated the association between extracurricular activity involvement and suicidality in that extracurricular activity participants who reported higher school belongingness were less likely to report suicidality. These findings indicate that school belongingness may be a factor in understanding the link between extracurricular activity involvement and risk for suicide.