The Effects of Individual, Family and Community Characteristics on Youth’s Engagement in Sports and Volunteering in Mexico

Estela Rivero-Fuentes, Population Council
Mercedes Pedrero, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Silvia Luna, Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres

Engagement in civil and community activities and in sports are two activities that are argued to have a positive effect on the development of children and adolescents and on their successful transition to adulthood. In this paper we explore the correlates at the individual and family level of children and youth aged 12 to 24 spending time exercising and in a civil organization. Because engagement in these activities may also depend on unobserved variables at the community and family level, we fit a multi-level probit model that controls for variation at the level of the individual, the family and the community. Data come from a nationally representative survey of time use in Mexico.