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Why Young Girls Are Quitting Sports At Alarming Rates & How We Can Break The Cycle

Laura Chaddock-Heyman, PhD
Author:
September 19, 2024
Laura Chaddock-Heyman, PhD
Neuroscientist
By Laura Chaddock-Heyman, PhD
Neuroscientist
Laura Chaddock-Heyman, PhD is a fitness enthusiast and neuroscientist who studies how aerobic fitness and physical activity relate to the brain and cognition across the lifespan. She was the #1 singles tennis player and one of the top scholar-athletes at Haverford College. She completed her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois. She has published many research articles in scientific journals, and her work has made significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain plasticity, and cognitive neuroscience. Laura is passionate about health and science—and being a mom to her eight-year-old daughter, Lexi.
Girl with basketball
Image by Westend61 / Getty
September 19, 2024

Physical activity and sports participation in youth are on the decline—and we need to do something about it. 

National exercise guidelines recommend that children and adolescents participate in 60 minutes or more1 of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day. However, only one-quarter2 (barely 20%!) of children and teens currently meet these recommendations. 

Today’s youth are also dropping out of organized sports at high rates—especially girls. Seventy percent of children will now stop playing sports by the age of 13—and teenage girls are dropping out at twice the rate of boys.

As a neuroscientist who studies how physical activity impacts the brain, I fear what these statistics could mean for our children's future. Let's explore why exercise is so important for our youth, and how we can help more girls stick with sports for the sake of their physical and mental health.

The mind-body benefits of exercising during childhood

It is well-known that exercise improves our physical health. Movement impacts our heart, lungs, bones, muscles, blood vessels, metabolism, immunity, stamina, and almost every biological system and cell of the human body. And it plays a key role in brain health, too.

The brain used to be considered relatively fixed and inflexible. Scientists believed that animals were born with a certain number of neurons, and brain structure and function would generally decline with age. However, we now know that the brain is "plastic." It reshapes, rewires, and changes based on how we live and move throughout our lives.

My research team has discovered that aerobic fitness and physical activity benefit the human brain—starting in childhood.

More fit and physically active youth tend to outperform less fit and active peers on tests of attention, memory, inhibition, and scholastic achievement. This mirrors what my team has been seeing on MRI scans. Our research suggests that more active children (age 9-11 years) and adolescents (age 15-18 years) have larger structural brain volumes in the hippocampus3—a brain region critical for memory and learning. 

They also seem to have more efficient brain activation patterns4: They have beefier and more fibrous white matter fiber tracts, which allow for faster and more efficient communication signals5 throughout the brain.

To our knowledge, there is no specific age at which the brain is most malleable. It's likely the brain is plastic and sensitive to the positive inputs of movement throughout the lifespan.

The prosocial benefits of sports

Beyond helping to strengthen the brains of young people, sports also provide the opportunity to develop movement and motor skills such as running, jumping, throwing, kicking, catching, and dribbling. These motor development skills are positively associated with aerobic fitness6, muscular strength and endurance7, and healthy weight status8.

Young athletes also show9 improved confidence, higher grades, less time on social media (which negatively impacts well-being), improved social connections, improved teamwork and sportsmanship, improved self-esteem, positive goal-setting, better time management, improved sleep, less drug and alcohol abuse, and fewer teen pregnancies.

Clearly, opportunities for physical activity are essential for growing kids. But unfortunately, schools across the U.S. are cutting them due to increased academic pressures.10 School systems often believe that physical education and recess are of less educational value than formal academic topics. But, as our research shows, that's not the case at all. 

Why are girls leaving sports at higher rates than boys?

Despite the benefits of athletics, most youth now drop out of sports by the age of 13—with girls stopping earlier than boys on average. A 2022 survey by Women in Sport reported that over 1 million adolescent girls (43%) who considered themselves sporty stopped playing sports in middle school—right around the time of puberty. 

Body image is a greater predictor of physical activity in young people than actual physical skill.

Part of the reasons girls are leaving sports in higher numbers than boys could have to do with teasing about weight and coordination.11 After all, research shows that young people tend to stop playing sports due to body image12 and perceived physical competence. In other words, body image is a greater predictor of physical activity in young people than actual physical skill.

Pressures to look like magazine photographs and elite athletes likely don't help and can lead to negative self-esteem and body dissatisfaction.

Girls are leaving sports because they perceive they are not as competent in athletics as their peers—even when that's not true13. Here are a few more potential reasons14 that girls drop out of sports at a higher rate than boys:

  • Fear of being judged by others 
  • Lack of confidence and poor self-esteem 
  • Frustration with the challenges of puberty (e.g., girls avoid playing sports when they have their period, or they have trouble finding sports bras and uniforms that fit propertly)
  • Dislike of being watched while participating in physical activity
  • Concern that a sport may make them less feminine or too feminine 
  • Negative body image
  • Body dissatisfaction and a desire to be thinner (often in the absence of weight issues)
  • Mental health issues
  • Access, safety, transportation, and cost
  • Challenges with coaches
  • Parental pressures

How do we help keep kids (especially girls) active and involved in sports?

Given their utmost importance for physical and mental health, here are a few ideas on how we can make physical activity and sport more appealing to young girls and boys.

1.

Make movement fun

Sports should be about play. Parents and teachers can focus on the joy of moving around, making healthy decisions, forming friendships, and learning how to work with others.

2.

Introduce exercise to kids when they're young

Increased exposure to physical activity from a young age (around 5 years old15) is positively related to increased sports participation. 

At younger ages, both girls and boys are not as influenced by self-perception of skills. In other words, they are less self-conscious, and they like to participate in sports whether or not they are competent. This developmental window provides an opportunity for parents and coaches to encourage a love of movement—especially in girls. This may lead to improved perceived competence and greater involvement in movement later in life.

3.

Educate

Teaching young people about the positive effects of aerobic fitness and physical activity can help set them up for active, healthy lives.

It is also important for young people (as well as their parents and coaches) to understand there are different developmental trajectories of male and female athletic performance. Adults need to be open to and encouraging of conversations about puberty and body changes, especially in girls. 

4.

Establish female role models

Finally, let’s promote more healthy, realistic images of athletes to encourage participation in physical activity—especially among girls. Highlighting more female role models in sports and putting a greater spotlight on women's athletics will hopefully inspire girls to stay active throughout their lives.

The takeaway

Movement during childhood and adolescence is critical to the healthy development of the body and brain. However, physical activity and sport participation in youth are on the decline, especially in girls. We need to reverse this trend—and we can start by making movement and athletics fun, teaching young people about the importance of fitness and health, and promoting positive body image with realistic role models. Let’s get moving!

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