Why Do More Girls Drop Out of Sports Than Boys?
We already knew that by the time they are 13, seventy-five percent of kids drop out of sports, mostly because they’re not having fun anymore.
But research shows that girls drop out of sports at rates six times higher than boys.
We spoke recently with Samantha Salvia, a youth coach who leads Positive Coaching Alliance workshops for coaches, athletes and parents in San Francisco and Benjamin Dudley, executive director of the Portland chapter of the Positive Coaching Alliance, to better understand this alarming trend.
Boys say they drop out of sports because they’re not having fun anymore. Girls give the same reason too, but behind the “not-having-fun” are a number of issues, according to Salvia and Dudley.
Salvia and Dudley said girls:
- Lack female role models
- Often have less parental support
- Do not have access to female coaches, among other issues
From a mental game perspective, “not having fun” and lacking role models and parental support hurts kids’ confidence and makes sports less enjoyable. That can also lead to girls’ not playing or performing to their potential.
Here at Kids’ Sports Psychology, we urge parents to keep the lines of communication open with their young athletes. If your sports kids are girls and young women, obviously this is more important than ever…
You need to keep a close eye on who you choose as coaches and how your girls and young women are reacting to their youth sports experience.
Given this situation, you also need to seek out teams that will boost your girls’ confidence and also try to provide female role models for them. Younger girls look up to slightly older athletes, and high school girls tend to look to college athletes for inspiration, as Salvia and Dudley said in our interview.
Listen to the entire Ultimate Sports Parent podcast now:
Related Articles on Youth Sports:
- Why Girls Drop out of Sports More than Boys
- When Young Athletes Drop Out of Sport Due to Bullying
- Why Teenage Females Drop Out of Sports
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