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The purpose of the study was to investigate how involvement in exercise and participation in team sports were related to the multidimension self-perceptions of middle school females. The study was conducted in 2 middle schools with 181 8th-grade females. Instruments used were the Physical Activity Survey and Harter’s Self-Perception Profile for Children. Results show that participation in team sports was related to four domains of self-perception: social acceptance, athletic competence, scholastic competence, and global self-worth. Informal exercise was related to social acceptance and global self-worth of middle school females. Therefore, it appears that both team sports and exercise may be important in enhancing self-concept in middle school females. Results also show that over half of middle school females in this study participated in three or more team sports during middle school. However, almost half of these students report exercising informally less than three times a week. These results support the increased opportunities of team sports for middle school females.

In the current study we examined the relationships between stress predictors, stress, and burnout in female high school athletic directors (N = 52). Significant negative correlations between stress and hardiness and between stress and number of social support providers were found. Significant positive correlations between stress and time concerns, personnel concerns, and program success (e.g., winning) subscales of the athletic directing issues scale were also found. Subjects high in hardiness and with adequate social support networks, who also reported few athletic directing issues, were likely to report minimal stress. Significant positive correlations also indicated that stress was related to the burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Based on our results we supported and extended Kelley’s (1993; 1994) model of stress and burnout with a population of female athletic directors.

This article documents the history of sport in independent girls’ schools in Sydney, Australia, from the introduction of compulsory education in 1880 until the formation of the Girls Secondary School Sports Union in 1922 to organize interschool sporting connections. While there have been many vigorous studies that have followed the history of sport in Australian independent boys’ schools, this has not been replicated in the role of sport in Australian independent girls’ schools. The Australian independent girls’ school sector, however, accounts for a significant portion of the total student population. This article demonstrates that sport was significant in Australian independent girls’ schools and became dominant to the education of middle class girls. Modeled after the English Public Schools that had embraced the educational ideology of ‘athleticism’, Australian girls’ independent schools also reinforced the ideology that sport was a part of a well-rounded education. By the early 1920s sport was part of the independent girls’ schools extracurricular accomplishments and the sporting landscape became a ‘public space’ where middle-class femininity was constructed.

The purpose of this study was to create an educational context in physical education to empower seven high school girls by giving them the opportunity to design, implement, and complete an action research project of their interest. Participants’ stories were told and voices heard through the development of informational products they dispersed among the student body. Specifically, the girls expressed that gender and embarrassment issues were barriers they encountered in physical education. As a result, they wanted to take action by learning how other high school students felt about these issues. This article examines my process as a reflexive researcher and the students’ process as participants and action researchers, as well as how various power hierarchies inherent in the educational structure both empowered and constrained the research.

Although opportunities for female adolescents to participate in organized sports and physical activities are readily available, currently observed trends among female adolescents indicate nationwide decreases in physical fitness and involvement in physical education (PE) classes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of an alternative strength-conditioning PE pilot program among non-active middle-school-aged girls who were not involved in sports. The alternative strength-training PE program met twice weekly for eight-weeks and incorporated exercises using free-weights, exercise balls, resistance bands, and fitness steps. Students participating in this program tailored their workouts to meet their individual interests. Results indicated that girls involved in the alternative program significantly improved from their baseline means scores for cardiovascular and strength measurements. No significant differences in fitness assessments were observed pre/post among the girls involved in traditional PE classes. The present study demonstrates that alternative strength-training PE classes can be effective in improving fitness levels among non-active middle-school-aged female students who are not involved in sports.

Psychologists’ narrations have identified how difficult it is to treat individuals with eating disorders. Moreover, the further the illness has progressed, the greater is the resistance to treatment. Therefore, prevention is critical in reducing the prevalence of these disorders among female athletes. The individuals having the most contact with athletes, and thus constituting the first line of defense against this problem, are coaches. Yet, information about nutrition and proper weight control and how these topics should be properly communicated to athletes is frequently not part of a coach’s training, and consequently may not be part of a coach’s knowledge base. This study was designed to evaluate the perceived versus actual knowledge about nutrition and weight control held by high school coaches of girls’ teams (̲n = 42). Two questionnaires, designed by the investigators, were administered sequentially. The first requested perceptions on various nutritional and weight control issues. The second was a quiz on actual knowledge of nutrition and weight control. Ninety-one percent of the coaches rated their nutrition knowledge as average or above, while only 40 percent had taken any formal classes in nutrition. On the actual quiz, only 14 percent of the coaches knew what percentage of simple carbohydrates should constitute athletes’ diets, while less than half (40%) were able to identify sources of complex carbohydrates. Eleven percent of the coaches thought athletes should have a high protein diet, while almost all of them (80%) believed that muscle is gained by eating proteins. Furthermore, only eight percent were able to identify sources of low fat protein. In regard to issues of weight control, 40 percent of the coaches thought athletes would improve performance by losing weight, 33 percent had impressed on their team the need to lose several times, and 28 percent had spoken to individual athletes about the need to lose weight several times. The predominant method for monitoring weight loss in athletes was visual inspection (37%) rather than actual measurement. Moreover, 77 percent of the coaches thought weight loss had to exceed 15 percent to reflect an anorectic condition, suggesting a possible need for earlier intervention by coaches. Since 82 percent of the coaches incorrectly thought body image distortions occur equally among male and female adolescents, it seems they are unaware of the greater risk for eating disorders among female athletes. While this study represents a small sampling of coaches, the observed lack of congruence between perceived and actual knowledge regarding nutrition and weight control must be addressed if prevention of eating disorders among athletes is to become a reality.

Issues concerning children’s fitness levels and fitness tests have been prevalent in the literature. Topics include whether fitness levels of American youth have declined and whether fitness tests are reliable, valid, and appropriate. Schools have questioned the merit of fitness tests, as opposed to fitness as an activity toward a healthy lifestyle. Absent from discussion are various moral and ethical implications embedded in the differential performance criteria set for boys and girls of the same age. Given the physiological similarity between boys and girls until age 12, this study was conducted to determine if there was a significant difference between fitness scores of boys and girls aged 10 through 13 years on the Physical Best test battery to warrant differential performance criteria. Girls were found to be significantly more flexible than boys on the sit and reach test, while boys performed significantly more pull-ups on the pull-up test. Prior to age 13 there were no statistically significant differences between mean fitness scores of girls and boys of the same age, even though established performance criteria are lower for girls than for boys. It is apparent that potential gender bias exists in the determination of Physical Best’s performance criteria for boys and girls. The consequences of differential expectations are discussed and a call for the re-evaluation of fitness standards are included.

This quasi-experimental study aimed to assess risk for the female athlete triad (Triad) and pilot a peer-led Triad educational intervention. Twenty-nine female high school track and field athletes (N = 29) at one high school in the western United States consented to participate. Participants were weighed and measured, and completed pre- and postsurveys that included Triad risk factor questions and 10 questions assessing Triad knowledge. 54% of athletes reported current menstrual irregularity; 7% reported a history of stress fractures. Significant increases in Triad knowledge were observed pre- to postintervention (4.7 ± 2.6 to 7.7 ± 1.78 out of 10; p < .0001). Triad education was generally accepted and enjoyed by participants; however, 86% preferred that a coach or other adult provide education instead of a peer.

The decline in number of female coaches has been a serious concern of women in sport. This study investigated whether gender of coach would influence high school female basketball players specifically in relation to their future coaching self-efficacy, the level of competition at which they might choose to coach, and their ideas about the purposes of basketball. Results revealed that gender of coach did not influence self-efficacy for coaching but did influence level of competition. Perceived playing ability was found to be the strongest predictor of future coaching self-efficacy. In addition, some differences were found between male- and female-coached athletes and between male and female coaches concerning perceived purposes of basketball.