Extracurricular Activities on Students’ Academic Performance: The Good or the Bad?

∗Special attention has been directed to the position of extracurricular activities (ECAs) in children and adolescent development, specifically the relationship between extracurricular activity participation (EAP) and their academic performance (AP); nevertheless, not much has evaluated it in higher education. This study aims to investigate this association by comparing 30 club participants’ EAP experience with 30 non-participants at a Vietnamese educational institution. Amixed-methods research design was employed with two data collection instruments: a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. Statistical results from the questionnaire computed by SPSS software revealed no statistically significant differences between two groups in academic studies. In-depth interviews provided further true reasons for EAP indicators in the quantitative data (e.g., time on homework, lateness for school, skipping classes, and missing sessions) and showed that the main difference between the two groups lied in time spent on assignments. The integration of both data pinpointed that EAP made an impact on ECA participants, mainly on time spent on homework while no connections with other indicators were found.