The purpose of my literature review is to review and credit the previous research I will use to support my own. I will be looking at research that relates to my aim- find the main reasons for post 16 female drop out from sport or physical activity. I will use my findings to create my questionnaire of the most commonly occurring issues. To be selected as a source it must be relevant to one of my aim (population, variable and measure) and have been conducted in the last 10 years. There should be a vast amount of research on this topic due to relevance of the research with campaigns such as This Girl Can. Many national governing bodies are also looking at increasing female participation in general. For my research I am using five abstracts and five articles and other sources.
Slater and Tiggermann (2010) researched the reasons of adolescent girls withdrawing from physical activity. The aim was to find the reasons girls give “for ceasing participation in sports and other physical activities” and “for why they do not participate as much boys”. The method for this experiment was 6 focus groups aged 13-15. This study was conducted in Adelaide in Australia. This age group is just younger than the group I will be looking at and based in Australia but the information is good to use as it is looking at a very similar issue in a similar, though not identical population. The results of this are not completely given in the abstract however it is given that lack of competence and insufficient time are reasons. It is also interesting to see what they gave as the reasons for not participating as much as boys (although not linked directly to my research). They were concerned about crossing traditional gender boundaries as some sports are traditionally seen as masculine. Concerns were also raised about appearance when playing sport. This is inline with the reasons raised in my other sources.
Thompson (2015) is an article on the Association of Colleges website. It is to go with the launch of Sport England’s campaign ‘This Girl Can’. It talks about the representation of women in sport in England. 30.3% of female population aged 14+play sport once a week it then goes into details specifically to do with colleges. This meets my population and the figures is one of the main reasons I have chosen to look at this issue 25% of sports students are female and only 30% of students participating in sports activities were female. It is relevant to my research as it gives me links to other research and campaigns that try to combat falling participation rates among female college students.
Sport England (2006) compiled research into participation among 15-19 year old women. The research aimed to understand the detriments of physical activity participation among women aged 15-19. It had three objectives- 1-the influence of key transitions in young women’s lives upon levels of sport and physical activity, such as leaving school etc. 2-The influence of the environment upon participation in sport and physical activity.3- The influence of social and psychological (referred to as psychosocial) factors upon levels of sport and physical activity, such as attitudes and perceived pros and cons of participation. The method was a short screening questionnaire to find out the levels of participation of 15-19 year old girls. There were then focus groups and individual interviews with 75 young women. This research meets all three of my aims as the population, variable and measure are the same. The research identified that there are clear differences between those who do sport and those who don’t regarding issues like role of family, friends and the awareness of sporting opportunities. This is a good source for my research as it gives a number of potential reasons to include in my survey.
Kay (2006) this research looks at the influence of family among young Muslim girls who have participated in sport. It looks at the girls understanding of their parents views in relation to their family participation in physical education. They interviewed girls and reasons they gave included the effect being a minority in Britain and the effects it has on their participation. This is relevant to my research as it could be a potential reason for many girls not participating in sport and physical activity. Both ethnicity and family influences should be included in my survey.
Eime et al (2012) conducted research into the decline in participation in sport and physical activity on adolescence especially girls. A survey of 489 year 7 and 243 year 11 girls looking at overall participation rates. The results found that less than half of respondents met the recommended amount of exercise. There was no found difference between the two groups apart from there was a shift in the type of exercise the girls were doing. In the younger group the girls participated in more structured sport were as this changes to unstructured activities like going running or to the gym. The purpose of the research was to be able to implement policies that create programmes to promote PA in adolescent girls. This is very similar to my research; only it compares the differences from the youngest end of school to the oldest age.
Tinsley for Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation. Comprised a presentation of research regarding drop out of 16-24 year olds. It talks about the NGBs that have identified female participation as an issue they want to work on. They all report that the drop off occurs in girls during their teenage years. The report gives the feelings of the girls who don’t give up and they talk about a sport being a passion and a release. They also report on many reasons girls do give up. There is a huge range of reasons given that they found. I am going to use these reasons in my survey as the cover the widest range and is based on research done in a similar age group. It goes into details around body image giving this as one of the big reasons girls don’t participate.
Hughes (2012) wrote an article on making PE more attractive to girls. The article is based on the Women’ Sports and Fitness Foundation saying that girls are put off by PE and that schools should make it more appealing to girls. Research conducted at the University of Loughborough found a difference in attitudes to sport between girls and boys. Girls and boys at age eight have similar activity levels, 60% said they took part in at least 1 hour of exercise five times a week. Where as with 14 year olds the figure had halved (31%) where as boys the figure was at 50%. The research found that girls wanted to do physical activity but were put off by PE classes and some said they did not like the idea of exercising in front of boys. This is important for my research as it gives statistics suggesting that perhaps the drop off begins as girls enter secondary school and go through puberty as apposed to around the time of GCSE and A-level exams.
Mundasad (2014) wrote an article surrounding possible reasons for women not wanting to participate in sport. This was based on a report by MPs which suggest that sexist attitudes, boring lessons and “gratuitous derogatory remarks” put women off sport. The article talks about lack of funding among school age females reduces the amount of them who will take part in sport later in life. They MPs found that many girls are put off by school sports lessons. From this report there was money put into Sport England to improve grassroots sport for women and girls. This article is relevant to my research as it shows how relevant the topic is with money going into improving participation rates among women and girls.
Martinson (2014) wrote an article for The Guardian regarding the representation and reporting of female sporting success. Research from Birmingham University found that a year on from the London Olympic games six of the national newspapers had less reports on female sport than before the games. 97% of sports coverage the year after the Olympics (2013) was of male sports. The research believes there is a link between the female representation levels in the media and the low levels of participation among women (29% meet the recommended minimum). This report is important to my research as it raises another issue that my impact 16-19 year old girls participating in physical activity.
Commons select comity (2015) this report highlights that no matter age, ethnicity or income levels women and girls are less likely to participate in sport. There are more problems to do with accessibility and availability for females wanting to participate in sport. The report makes recommendations of what to do within school to increase participation including increasing the range of activities for girls, better training for teachers and a more even split of funding between girls and boys sport. This is important for my research as it highlights the things already in place to combat lower participation rates in girls.
The key trends that are in all of my articles are that across all groups of society girls have lower participation rates than boys. One of the issues that occurs most often is the concern with how they look while doing exercise or body image. Because of this I would expect this to appear in my findings. I would also expect the lack of opportunity to be a common thing to come back from my survey.
One abstract that is a slight anomaly is Eime et al where it was found that actually girls did want to and many do continue with physical activity through out teenage years however the move away from the traditional competitive structured sports that can be seen as masculine. The age ranges across all of this research changes with some meeting my sample and some not however most mention that the decline begins to occur during in the teenage years and while still in school.Most of my sources are valid however some do not have exact reference of where the data came from. Some of the reports from the organisations such as Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation is presented as if a presentation so the data is easy to read and nicely laid out but doesn’t reference who did the original research. However as it comes from well-known and respected sources I feel it is valid.
I feel that the sources I have used above will support my research and validate my findings as I fully expect them to be inline with the research above. The reasons found especially from the WSFF will be the base of my survey, which means that the reasons I am testing, will have come from prior research into the area. It also means that the reasons will have come from focus groups and interviews with young women within my sample. I suspect that the reasons that will come up from my research as most common are: Body image, opportunities and lack of confidence in abilities.
Amy Slater and Marika Tiggermann. 2010. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. Volume 11. Adelaide, Australia.
Donna Thompson. January 2014. “Girls in college can play sport… but do they want to?” Women’s sport and fitness foundation. 2007-2011.
Sports England. January 2006. Understanding participation in sport: What determines sports participation among 15-19 year old women?
Tess Kay. 2006. Family influences on Muslim young women’s participation in sport. Daughters of Islam.
Rochelle Eime, Jack Harvey, Neroli Sawyer, Melinda Craike, Caroline Symons, Remco Polman, Warren Payne. Understanding the Contexts of Adolescent Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity. Research quarterly for exercise and sport. Volume 84. Issue 2.
Tinsely. Sport England. Investigating reasons for sport drop-out amongst 16-19 year old girls.
Worthing College Sport and Exercise Science 