Title IX just celebrated it’s 40th birthday and with it a quantum shift of women into high school athletics and college sports. A new study confirms that teenage girls who compete in sports competition are less likely to use drugs, more likely to finish school, and less likely to have out of wedlock pregnancies. In psychiatry, it has been seen for decades that girls in sports are dramatically less likely to suffer from body Dysmorphic Syndrome. This is the belief that you are defective or unlovable because of external physical features, with resultant focus on reshaping one’s body to present differently. Just look at the popular woman’s magazines to see how rampant this is. It is hard to impossible to alter physical features and countless teens obsess about “looks.” An athlete focuses on training and performance as well as bonding with other girls based on merit. As a result, a more solid sense of self is formed and healthier social connections. It is even more likely they will attend and graduate college. In romances, they are better able to connect with male peers and are more fit to bear children. In a generation, women athletes are now the norm and more watched than the mindless pageants of my childhood.
If you have girls play sports with them. Encourage them to join a team. Support their efforts and attend their games. Adolescence is a minefield and no one comes through unscathed, but athletics is one of the few activities which can combat a girls focus on only appearances, while shifting her odds in so many other high risk areas. Title IX made this possible.