Latino youth are the fastest growing segment of the United States population, but presently their academic attainment lags far behind other ethnic groups. Researchers have sought to pinpoint the causes of this achievement gap, but rarely take into consideration all of the things youth do outside of school hours. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the role of structured out-of-school time programs with regards to educational attainment for working class and Mexican American youth. Drawing on in-depth interviews with former participants as well as large-scale survey data, this study takes a longitudinal look at after school activity participation in the lives of Mexican American youth.

First, drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (n=8064), I found significant differences in years of education completed across race/ethnic groups, significant differences in types of activities participated in across racial and ethnic groups, and significant differences in years of education completed across types of extracurricular participation. OLS regression results show that although gender, race/ethnicity and family income were all significant factors in predicting years of education attained, controlling for extracurricular activity participation rendered the difference in years of education between White and Mexican American students insignificant.

To explore how extracurricular participation during middle school might promote more years of education in young adulthood, I draw on interviews with 12 out-of-school time activity participants first in eighth grade and again five to seven years later. Interview data reveal three primary ways extracurricular participation played a role in Mexican American adolescent's years of education: relationships with supportive and knowledgeable adults, concrete skills, and increased self-awareness. Interview data also reveal that youth were influenced by participation to different degrees, classified as auxiliary influence, distinguishable influence and transformative influence. Participation influenced youth through different mechanisms and to different degrees depending on the other relationships and structures in their lives, as well as their own personal agency. These findings both support and expand upon existing theoretical explanations of Mexican American academic achievement, specifically role identity theory and social capital theory.