Más allá del aula: acceso, participación e impactos de las actividades extracurriculares, en jóvenes de 20 a 24 años de la Universidad de Cuenca (2025)

Abstract

This research focuses on analyzing how access to extracurricular activities occurs during adolescence and how these activities influence the life trajectories of those who have participated in them, as well as those who have not. To this end, approaches to youth and life trajectories are articulated with Bourdieu's theory of habitus and forms of capital. To this end, the analysis was developed based on the experiences of young people aged 20 to 24 at the University of Cuenca. A qualitative approach was used, with a narrative design and a life story method, applied to 16 participants through semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The results show that access to extracurricular activities is determined by a network of factors external to the adolescent. The findings also highlight that participating in these activities promotes the incorporation of dispositions, which translate into the development of various skills and abilities, compared to those who were unable to access them. Finally, differentiated trajectories are identified, where the trajectories of those who did participate in extracurricular activities show an accumulation of dispositions that facilitated their transition to university life. In comparison, the trajectories of those who did not gain access are characterized by feelings of backwardness, which in turn influence young people's agency through their search to compensate for these losses.