One difficulty of evaluating after-school programs is that providers often lack resources necessary to employ rigorous evaluation designs. One strategy is to investigate the relationship between attendance and outcomes while covarying for important potentially confounding variables. The current study investigates the influence of after-school program attendance on immigrant Latino children's (N = 94) social development. Hierarchical linear regressions indicated that after covarying for other important variables, high program dosage was related to increased social competence and decreased behavior problems. Implications of this research are that after-school programs may promote the positive youth development of immigrant Latino children, that it is important that attendance data be collected when evaluating after-school programs, and that community-funded research can lead to scientifically relevant findings. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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