Page 53 - Illinois Association of Park Districts Benefits of Membership 2017 - 2018

Crime and drugs
Police officers know that in the hour after school lets out, violent juvenile crime suddenly triples.5 In a random survey of 1,178 police chiefs, sheriffs and prosecutors, respondents were asked to rank the impact of several strategies to reduce youth violence and crime. By more than a four to one margin, respondents chose providing beyond-school programs for school-aged children rather than hiring more police officers as having the greater impact in reducing youth violence and crime.
Children, especially adolescents, are at a greater risk of using drugs and alcohol if left unsupervised. Results from the 2002 Monitoring the Future study of 44,000 eighth, tenth and twelfth graders showed that more than half of twelfth graders have used an illicit drug, 30 percent have used some drug other than marijuana and 11 percent have used ecstasy.6 Students who spend no time in extracurricular activities are 49 percent more likely to use drugs and 37 percent more likely to become teen parents than those who spend one to four hours per week in extracurricular activities.7
Television
On average, U.S. children watch four hours of television per day. It is recommended that they watch no more than one to two hours per day of educational, nonviolent programming.8 More than half of teens (54 percent) say they wouldn’t watch so much TV or play video games if they had other things to do after school.9
Obesity
If children are left unsupervised, they tend to be less active and eat unhealthy foods causing weight gain. Overweight children and adolescents are at an increased risk of developing type II diabetes, cardiovascular problems, orthopedic abnormalities, gout, arthritis and skin problems. Also, being overweight is likely to
5 Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, After School Programs Will Slash School and Youth Violence, 2000.
6 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) & National Institute of Health (NIH). (2002). Monitoring the Future study. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research.
7 U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics. (1998). National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988: A profile of the American eighth grader. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
8 Start Early: Learning Begins At Birth, Special Conference Report What Impacts A Child’s Development, 2003.
9 Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates. (2001). Telephone interviews with a national sample of 500 teens, 14 to 17 years of age. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from: http://www.ymca.net/resrm/research/surveySummary.html.
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