Editors’ Notes (Heather B. Weiss, Priscilla M. D. Little, Suzanne M. Bouffard).

Executive Summary.

1. More than just being there: Balancing the participation equation (Heather B. Weiss, Priscilla M. D. Little, Suzanne M. Bouffard)
Participation in out-of-school-time programs confers many benefits for young people, but many youth do not participate in programs. Understanding participation as a three-part construct of enrollment, attendance, and engagement can help stakeholders to maximize participation in and benefits from programs.

2. To participate or not to participate: That is the question (Lynne M. Borden, Daniel F. Perkins, Francisco A. Villarruel, Margaret R. Stone)
Research from the perspectives of youth can illuminate reasons that they do or do not enroll in out-of-school-time programs. This information can help increase program participation, particularly for ethnic minority youth, who are traditionally underserved in programs.

3. Predicting participation and outcomes in out-of-school activities: Similarities and differences across social ecologies (Sandra D. Simpkins, Marika Ripke, Aletha C. Huston, Jacquelynne S. Eccles)
Youth and family characteristics predict which youth are most likely to participate in organized out-of-school-time activities and how likely they are to benefit.

4. Recruitment and retention strategies for out-of-school-time programs (Sherri C. Lauver, Priscilla M. D. Little
Out-of-school-time programs can increase youth participation using a set of promising strategies and a school and community-wide commitment to implement them.

5. Present and accounted for: Measuring attendance in out-of-school-time programs (Leila M. Fiester, Sandra D. Simpkins, Suzanne M. Bouffard)
Reasons and methods for collecting attendance data in out-of-school-time programs depend on program goals, characteristics, and design. Four indicators of attendance can help programs collect these important data.

6. The ABCs of engagement in out-of-school-time programs (W. Todd Bartko)
How do we get from attendance in out-of-school-time programs to active engagement? Research in schools proposes that engagement is composed of three “ABC” components—affect, behavior, and cognition—and suggests how programs can use this model to foster engagement.

7. Activities, engagement, and emotion in after-school programs (and elsewhere) (Deborah Lowe Vandell, David J. Shernoff, Kim M. Pierce, Daniel M. Bolt, Kimberly Dadisman, B. Bradford Brown)
Experience sampling methodology was used to measure engagement during the after-school hours. Experiences that combined high levels of intrinsic motivation with concerted effort and enjoyment occurred more often at after-school programs than elsewhere.

Index.