Something you should know about your daughter

First published in May, 2004, the Her Life Depends On It report, "is a comprehensive compendium of research that points to physical activity and sport as fundamental solutions for many of the serious health and social problems faced by American girls."

From the report's executive summary:

"Obesity: In 1970, only one out of every 21 girls was obese or overweight; today that figure is one in six.
--(National Center for Health Statistics, 2002)"

"Tobacco Use: In grades 9-12, 29.5% of female students report current tobacco use (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2002)."

"Female athletes on one or two school or community sports teams were significantly less likely to smoke regularly than female non-athletes. Girls on three or more teams were even less likely to smoke regularly (Melnick et al, 2001)."

"Illicit Drug Use: Thirty-eight percent of 12th-grade girls and 18% of eighth-grade girls have used an illicit drug at least once during the past year (Johnston, O’Malley and Bachman 2002)."

"Two nationwide studies found that female school or community athletes were significantly less likely to use marijuana, cocaine or most other illicit drugs, although they were no less likely to use crack or inhalants. This protective effect of sports was especially true for white girls (Miller et al, 2000; Pate et al, 2000)."

"Sexual Risk: About 1/4 of sexually active adolescents are infected with a sexually transmitted disease each year (Kirby, 2001)."

"Female athletes are less likely to be sexually active, in part because they tend to be more concerned about getting pregnant than female non-athletes (Dodge & Jaccard, 2002)."

"Depression: By age 15, girls are twice as likely as boys to have experienced a major depressive episode. This gender gap continues for the next 35 to 40 years, until menopause (Cyranowski et al, 2000)."

"Women and girls who participate in regular exercise suffer lower rates of depression (Nicoloff and Schwenk, 1995; Page and Tucker, 1994)"