True-Sport-Report

een created, even as high school female
sport participation is at the highest level
in history.
At all levels, participation of girls and
young women in sport still lags far behind
participation of boys and young men. Data
collected in 2009 by the Sporting Goods
Manufacturers Association found that
overall 68.5 percent of males participate
in some type of team sport, versus 31.5
percent of females. 5 One set of numbers
for young children showed that a greater
percentage of female than male students
in kindergarten through eighth grade were
involved in arts, clubs, community service,
religious activities, and scouts after school
in 2005, but the pattern of participation
was reversed for sport. 115
Work by the Women’s Sports Foundation
found that the level of interest in sport
by both boys and girls varies more within
gender than across genders but is similar
for younger boys and girls. However, young
girls tend to join sport later than young
boys, which translates to less experience,
less practice, and less skill development.
And by age 14, girls drop out from sport at
a rate that is six times higher than that for
boys. 7 Thus, the length of participation in
organized sport is greatly reduced for girls,
particularly for those of color and those
from low-income families.
Data over time consistently show that
girls drop out of sport at twice the rate of
boys—and at younger ages. 55 The Women’s
Sports Foundation’s Go Out and Play:
Youth Sports in America 7 report tracked
entry, drop-out, and re-entry into sport
among a national sample of U.S. children.
The report states that drop-out patterns
are fluid; children may stop and re-enter
sports. However, girls are more likely to be
nonathletes, and for those girls who are involved
in sport, attrition begins in middle
school. Attrition at this stage affects both
boys and girls, but rates are higher for girls,
especially for urban girls. Participation
in physical activity in suburban areas is
similar between boys and girls; yet a wider
gender gap exists in rural and urban communities,
with girls participating in less
physical activity than boys. 7 Studies aimed
at understanding low rates of participation
of urban girls suggest that safety, privacy,
and cultural issues play a role. 116 Other
research on adolescent girls and physical
activity reveals that girls living in urban
environments often associate sport with
exercise and physical education requirements
and therefore do not see it as fun. 117
The Sport in America Report revealed that
all groups of adults think that the major
reasons that girls quit sport are that they
find something else they want to do, that
their friends quit, that they are becoming
shy about their bodies, and that they want
more free time (Figure 5). Parents of teens
also are more likely to say that girls drop
out of sport because they do not think they
are as good as others in the sport. Notably,
all adult subgroups rank “becoming shy
about their bodies” significantly higher
for girls as a reason to quit sport than the
teens do themselves.
50