Body Electric - A Santa Barbara network for active women and girls

A Santa Barbara Network For Active Women And Girls

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^{Benefits

of Physical Activity for Girls and Women}

Exercise and sport participation can enhance mental health by offering adolescent girls positive feelings about body image, improved self-esteem, tangible experiences of competency and success, and increased self-confidence.

Research suggests that physical activity is an effective tool for reducing the symptoms of stress and depression among girls.

Many high school female athletes report higher grades, standardized test scores and lower dropout rates, and are more likely to go on to college than their non-athletic counterparts.

Teenage female athletes are less than half as likely to get pregnant as female non-athletes.

Teenage female athletes were significantly more likely to report that they had never had sexual intercourse than non-athletes.

Teenage female non-athletes were about twice as likely as female athletes to experience their first intercourse between the ages of 10 and 13.

A number of studies have shown that the risk of breast cancer is lessened with exercise. At the University of Tromso, Norwegian researchers tracked the health of more than 25,000 women for an average of 14 years. Compared with the least active women, those who exercised at least four hours a week -- just 35 minutes a day -- were 37% less likely to develop breast cancer.

Sources: Women's Sports Foundation Report - Sport and Teen Pregnancy, 1998; President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports - Report on Physical Activity and Sport in the Lives of Girls, 1997.

Body Electric PO Box 591 Santa Barbara, California 93102 805.569.7144

bodyelectric@bodyelectric-sb.org