Some Statistics...

Body Image & Self Esteem

• Girls tend to experience a significant decline in self-esteem over the course of adolescence (Baldwin & Hoffmann, 2002; Biro et al., 2006).
• On average, female athletes are more likely to have positive body image and less likely to consider themselves overweight than female non-athletes (Hausenblas & Downs, 2001; Miller et al., 2000).
• Research shows that sports participation is positively associated with self-esteem in elementary school girls (McHale et al., 2005), 12th-grade girls (Dishman et al., 2006), and college women (Armstrong & Oomen-Early, 2009).
• For middle school girls, perceptions of belonging (e.g., being part of a team, being with friends, and acceptance by others) were very much related to their interest in, and enjoyment of, physical activity (Allen, 2003; Prochaska, Rodgers, & Sallis, 2002; Smith, 1999).

Academic Benefits

• Student-athletes in high school tend to do better academically over time (Crosnoe, 2002; Eccles & Barber, 1999; Marsh & Kleitman, 2003; Videon, 2002).
• The positive effect of sports on academics appears to be similar, if not stronger, in girls than boys (Crosnoe, 2001, 2002; Hanson & Krauss, 1998, 1999; Sabo, Melnick, & Vanfossen, 1993; Pearson, Crissey, & Riegle-Crumb, 2009; Veliz & Shakib, 2014).
• High school girls who play sports are more likely to do well in science (Hanson & Kraus, 1998, 1999).

Risky Behavior

Sex and Teen Pregnancy

• Girls who play sports engage in less high-risk sexual behavior than those who don’t. Female athletes are less likely to have unprotected sex (without birth control or barrier protection), sex with multiple partners, or sex under the influence of alcohol or drugs (Eitle & Eitle, 2002; Lehman & Koerner, 2004; Miller et al., 2002).
• Female high school and college athletes are significantly less likely to get pregnant than their nonathlete peers (Dodge & Jaccard, 2002; Kokotailo et al, 1998; Miller et al., 1999; Page et al., 1998; Rome, Rybicki, & Durant, 1998; Sabo et al., 1998).

Smoking and Illicit Drug Use

• A national study of U.S. public high school students found that organized sports participants were 22% less likely to smoke cigarettes, regardless of gender (Castrucci et al., 2004).
• The more heavily a girl is involved in sports, the less likely she is to smoke. Compared to non-athletes, female athletes are less likely to report current or lifetime cigarette use, and girls who participate on three or more teams in a given year are least likely of all to report cigarette use (Melnick et al., 2001; Page et al., 1998).
• The protective effect of sports participation applies to young adults as well as adolescents. Female college athletes were two to three times less likely than nonathletes to engage in smoking, either in season or in the off-season for their sport (Yusko et al., 2008).
• High school girls who participate in exercise or sports are significantly less likely than their less-athletic peers to use marijuana, cocaine, or most other illicit drugs (Miller et al., 2001; Pate et al., 2000; Terry-McElrath et al., 2011).