The risky behaviors studied were dropping out of school, having children while still teenagers, being delinquent, smoking, using marijuana or cocaine, and binge drinking. The data came from Monitoring the Future, the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, the National Education Longitudinal study begun in 1988, and an earlier longitudinal study called High School and Beyond. Results revealed that youth have a lot of discretionary time and that most are not filling it with activities that build their skills or characters. Overall patterns were surprisingly similar to those of earlier youth; any changes were mostly in a negative direction. Youths from families with low levels of parent education or family income were least likely to engage in organized skill-building and character-nurturing activities. The time patterns of 10th graders were predictive of what they would be doing 1 year after high school and whether they would engage in risky behaviors. However, time in extracurricular activities did not have a significant relationship with underage drinking. Findings indicated that organized youth activities can help deter risky behavior in adolescence and young adulthood, but an activity's effectiveness depends partly on its nature and the attitudes of other participants.