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Background The importance of extracurricular activities (EAs) has been emphasized in medical education. These activities could enhance medical students’ emotional and physical health and afford them developmental opportunities. Despite the growing amount of research related to this theme, few studies review and synthesize the existing literature. This study aims to provide an understanding of the educational implications of EAs in medical colleges and constructs an integrated conceptual framework concerning their types and learning outcomes by literature review. Methods An integrative literature review was conducted following Torraco’s method, with the aim to generate a new framework for the given topic. The authors utilized Scopus and PubMed as databases, using search terms “extracurricular,” “medical,” and “students.” Initially, titles and abstracts were screened to include relevant studies, and the researchers verified the eligibility of the articles by following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Of the 263 articles identified, 64 empirical studies were selected for further review. Results EAs in undergraduate medical education can be classified into direct extracurricular activities and indirect extracurricular activities, the latter of which is sorted into nine sub-categories. We identified seven main categories regarding the learning outcomes of EAs. In addition to general activities (e.g., pro-social activities, team sports), some distinctive activities such as research have been largely addressed in previous studies. The results of EAs were discussed in relation to academic growth, career development, and psychological experiences. Conclusions This review identified the types and learning outcomes of EAs in the context of medical education, thereby suggesting ways to improve the quality of EAs and maximize their educational effects.

In a supportive and immersive environment, engaging in English extracurricular activities is crucial for university students as it enhances their language skills, cultivates valuable communication and teamwork abilities, and significantly alleviates their anxiety levels. This quantitative study aimed to examine the causality between the independent variable (intervention in English extracurricular activities-EECAs) and the dependent variable (learners' anxiety levels) using the Foreign Language Anxiety Scale developed by Horwitz et al. Data were collected from a sample of 306 first-year students at a university in Vietnam through self-report surveys administered both before and after participating in EECAs. The analysis of the collected data employed descriptive statistics and paired sample t-tests, revealing a causal relationship between participation in these activities and language learners' anxiety levels. The results revealed that active involvement in extracurricular activities may reduce learners' anxiety levels. These findings emphasize the significance of considering the potential impact of extracurricular activities on learners' anxiety levels and call for further research and interventions to address and alleviate anxiety in language learners involved in such activities.

The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions of parenting and parent-child activities in American families with children aged 0–16 after social distance measures were put in place. Through an online questionnaire, we examined the extent to which parental role, age, education, and perceptions of work productivity impacted parent perceptions of six parenting categories (positive parenting, inconsistent discipline, positive relationships, positive emotions, self-efficacy, and routine management) during the initial months of the pandemic. We also examined children’s participation in extracurricular activities, before and after measures of social distancing were implemented. Perceptions of parenting did not differ based on parental roles, education and age, but work productivity had an impact on parents’ perceptions of their own feelings and emotions. Parents who described themselves as highly productive reported higher scores for positive emotions, suggesting a link between work and parental wellbeing. A discrepancy was found between the activities that parents liked and disliked doing with their children, with homework and academic activities being the least liked of all. Children’s participation in extracurricular activities was also significantly reduced after social distancing was mandated, with arts activities (music in particular) suffering the least amount of reduction. Findings are discussed considering earlier studies on parenting during COVID-19 and concerted cultivation. Implications for future parenting research are outlined.HighlightsOnline questionnaire with American parents during the initial months of the pandemic.Parents who perceived themselves as more productive at work showed higher ratings for positive emotions.Homework and academic activities were rated as the least-liked activities that parents did with their children after social distancing was mandated.There was a significant reduction of extracurricular activities following “safer at home” measures, with the arts (music) suffering the least amount of reduction.

Entrepreneurship can provide a creative, disruptive, problem-solving-oriented approach to the current economic, environmental, and social challenges of the world. This article aims to provide an analysis about the way universities can have an impact on developing entrepreneurial competence in students through extracurricular activities. The research relies on a questionnaire survey of students at the University of Petrosani, who participated in a range of entrepreneurial activities both online during the COVID-19 pandemic and face-to-face afterwards. The methodology consisted of applying principal component analysis to reduce the dimensionality of the indicators, followed by classification of the respondents through cluster analysis and training of a feedforward neural network. After finishing the network-training process, the error was minimized, resulting in three classes of respondents. Furthermore, based on the three classes, follow-up conclusions, policies, and decisions can be issued regarding the perception of entrepreneurship at the societal level, which is beneficial for academia and entrepreneurs, as well as for future research undertaken in this field. The key conclusion of our research is that entrepreneurship education is a real facilitator of the transition to sustainable entrepreneurship. Students perceived meeting successful entrepreneurs as being among the most effective extracurricular activities, assessing online activities as useful, and the field of study proved to be an important factor in their entrepreneurial intention.

Although Western studies showed that participation in extracurricular activities was intimately linked to adolescents’ psychological adjustment, very few studies have addressed this issue among early adolescents in China. Based on a nationally representative sample of 9672 Chinese junior high school students (Mage = 14.54 years, SD = 0.70 years), this study investigated the relationship between participation in different extracurricular activities and depressive symptoms among Chinese early adolescents, and the moderating role of gender and family economic status. Results indicated that time spent completing homework, attending extracurricular tutoring, and playing online games after school was positively related to students’ depressive symptoms, whereas time spent on participating in physical exercise was negatively associated with students’ depressive symptoms. Besides, the relationships between after-school activities participation and student depressive symptoms were moderated by gender and family economic status. The theoretical and practical implications for the arrangement of after-school activities for Chinese early adolescents are discussed.

This empirical study proposed a comprehensive model testing the direct and indirect impacts of entrepreneurship extracurricular activities and entrepreneurship inspiration on students’ entrepreneurial intention. With the sample consisting of 640 students from 11 universities in Vietnam, the study used structural equation modeling analysis approach. The results revealed that entrepreneurship extracurricular activities and entrepreneurship inspiration are significantly related to students’ entrepreneurial intention, and entrepreneurship self-efficacy partially mediates these relations. The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention differs across the field of study. Technical students generally get more benefits from entrepreneurship educational activities than business and economics students do. The research findings recommended some implications for fostering graduates’ entrepreneurship in emerging countries.

Some authors stated that one of the reasons why the interest in research on extracurricular activities in Spain was growing, was that in recent years, Spanish children's participation in these activities has increased (Cladellas et al., 2015). [...]it was suggested in the literature that this participation in extracurricular activities was positively associated with good academic, social-emotional, and behavioral performance (Ferris et al., 2013). [...]it is known that the association between attendance at extracurricular activities and academic performance varies when considering factors such as the socioeconomic level and family structure, the parents' educational level, the parental style, the relationships with peers, gender, race, the environment in which one lives, the type of extracurricular activity, the number of hours dedicated to such activities, etc. The study results have indicated that students of low socioeconomic status obtained higher scores in Mathematics compared to non-participants in extracurricular activities of the same socioeconomic level. [...]students of high socioeconomic level obtained lower scores in Reading compared to non-participants in sport activities of that socioeconomic level. In both samples, sports participation was therefore a consistent predictor of academic success and of a low level of behavioral problems. [...]a Finnish study, conducted by Metsäpelto & Pulkkinen (2012), has examined the participation of students aged from 9 to 11 years, of both genders, in extracurricular activities, their socio-emotional behavior and their academic performance.

The integration of internationalization within higher education has gained attention in both international and local programs, which allows the enrichment of the institutional quality. Previous literature reveals multidimensional considerations to determine the level of internationalization, considered as pre-existing performance indicators, including: (1) ‘Curriculum and academic offerings’; (2) ‘Collaboration and partnership’; (3) ‘Student and academic staff mobility’; (4) ‘Institutional policy’; (5) ‘Resources’; (6) ‘Campus life’; and (7) ‘Performance review and accountability’. This study aimed to investigate the impact of performance indicators of internationalization on academic performance and extracurricular activities among dental students. A validated online self-administered questionnaire was distributed to dental undergraduates. The data from 93 students (response rate: 96.86%) were analyzed using descriptive statistics and simple linear regressions. The findings demonstrated that all performance indicators appeared to have significant impact on self-perceived participations of extracurricular activities (p < 0.05), while only ‘Collaboration and partnership’ (p = 0.016), ‘Student and academic staff mobility’ (p = 0.009), ‘Institutional policy’ (p = 0.008), and ‘Campus life’ (p = 0.005) significantly affected actual participations. None of them appeared to be significant predictors for actual and self-perceived academic performance (p > 0.05). The statistical model constructed in this research can be utilized as a conceptual framework in the future establishment of internationalization among dental schools.

Studies conducting quantitative surveys in school-aged children and adolescents help identify sports-related risk factors for acute and overuse injuries are scarce. This study aimed to quantify the risk factors for sports-related injury in school-aged children and adolescents by school categories. University students (n = 484) retrospectively recalled their sports experiences and related injuries in a questionnaire according to the following school categories: lower elementary school (LE), upper elementary school (UE), junior high school (JH), and high school (H). Both sports-related acute and overuse injuries were recorded. After adjusting various covariates, weekly hours in sports were identified as a significant risk factor in LE and UE. The interaction of weekly hours in sports and sports specialization was significant in LE and UE, suggesting that early specialization would be a risk factor in lower school categories. In JH and H, female sex, high-level competition, and injury experienced in a previous school category were significantly related to sports-related injuries. In conclusion, weekly hours in sports, high-level competitions, previous injury experience, and sex were confirmed as risk factors in specific school categories. Most identified risk factors are modifiable, suggesting that sports-related injuries can be prevented in school-aged children and adolescents.

Extant research has long investigated the individual antecedents of leadership emergence, but less research has explored the motivational factors. Drawing upon regulatory focus theory, the current research addresses the above issue by proposing a research model of the influence of regulatory focus on leadership emergence. Survey data collected from 426 undergraduate students in China indicated that both promotion focus and prevention focus were positively associated with leadership emergence. In addition, promotion focus contributed to leadership emergence via affective-identity motivation to lead (MTL), and prevention focus led to leadership emergence via social-normative MTL. Furthermore, undergraduate students’ extracurricular activity participation strengthened both the link between affective-identity MTL and leadership emergence and the indirect link between promotion focus and leadership emergence via affective-identity MTL. Nevertheless, undergraduate students’ extracurricular activity participation did not moderate both the link between social-normative MTL and leadership emergence and the indirect link between prevention focus and leadership emergence via social-normative MTL. This research contributes to the literature on leadership emergence, regulatory focus theory, and MTL and offers practical benefits for enhancing undergraduate students’ leadership emergence.