• Question: Do you think doing activites like scouts and guides affects how you act later on in life?

    Asked by Harry to Ria, Rachel, Joe, Iroise, Adrian on 14 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Joe Bathelt

      Joe Bathelt answered on 14 Nov 2016:

      There is research that found that extracurricular activities have a beneficial effect on the development of thinking skills and performance in school. The activities that the researchers looked at were ballet dancing and martial arts training. Their interpretation is that doing these activities teaches children and young people discipline, the important of perseverance and dedication, dealing with frustration, and interacting with others. So, based on this research, I think that being an active member of scouts could have similar benefits.

      You can find out more about some of this research in this TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StASHLru28s

    • Photo: Iroise Dumontheil

      Iroise Dumontheil answered on 14 Nov 2016:

      As adults we are a product of our genes interacting with our environment and experiences. So we are affected by what we are doing during childhood and adolescence, and it’s likely that doing activities like scouts and guides, which involve collaboration between individuals, being outside, without your parents, following regulations, etc. may have a long-lasting effect. Exactly what they are though I don’t think is known, this report for example talks about the benefits of scouting (https://members.scouts.org.uk/documents/supportandresources/leadershipandmanagement/ImpactStudy/Impact%20Study%20Executive%20Summary%20-%20web.pdf) but really what you would need would be an experiment where half of the participants are randomly selected to do scouts/guides activities, while the other half does nothing or maybe does some other activities instead, and then you follow them for years and see whether they differ as adults. But as you can imagine it’s not easy to do this type of studies!

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