Social capital, social connectedness, and school success for male African American student athletes

This study compared the social and academic characteristics of high school male African American student athletes with high school male African American students who participated in no school-sponsored extracurricular activities. This project utilized established questionnaires to measure the social outcomes of athletic participation and grade point averages to measure academic outcomes of athletic participation. The setting for this study was an urban high school located in an urban school system. The findings showed minor differences both socially and academically between the two groups of male African American high school students. The mixed results were reflective of the information revealed in the review of literature.