2023-10-20 05:22:32
Lack of self-confidence, puberty, fear of judgment from others (especially boys in class), concerns about their weight or appearance, physical activities offered that are not to their taste: these are some of the obstacles that lead adolescent girls to remain too sedentary.
What there is to know
- Only 31% of Canadian women aged 12 to 17 followed the minimum recommendations on the number of minutes devoted to physical activity in 20221.
- One in three Canadian teenagers aged 13 to 18 who play sports are unsure if they will continue, 2022 data shows2.
- A Quebec program developed specifically to get girls moving more – among themselves, out of sight of boys, by offering them activities that take their preferences into account – is bearing fruit, a study concludes.
This is what the FitSpirit program seeks to correct by offering support to schools that welcome girls aged 12 to 17 (at a cost of $400 per establishment).
Inactivity has nothing to do with laziness, insists Geneviève Leduc, senior program advisor at FitSpirit, but everything to do with the reality of adolescent girls.
With the arrival of menstruation often comes stomach aches, but not only that, notes Geneviève Leduc.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
The senior program advisor at Fitactive, Geneviève Leduc
We ask a girl to invest in her physical activity, without thinking that what she may be thinking about, when we ask her to jump up and down, is that she feels a flow. [menstruel] which bothers him.
Geneviève Leduc, senior program advisor at Fitactive
The compulsory swimming pool for the whole class, without other options, is not in the philosophy of Fitactive either, notes Mme Leduc.
Girls are also often uncomfortable with their new hair or with their breasts in the context of sports practice. A little advice here for parents: a sports bra is a good purchase for the teenager in the house, underlines Geneviève Leduc.
Parents must also ensure that their daughters start playing different sports at a young age “so that they do not have a skills deficit”.
Physical education teachers have known for a long time that children should not be allowed to choose their teammates to avoid the least strong being humiliated by being chosen last.
The fact remains that due to not having been encouraged as much as boys to play sports in childhood, “a large number of girls lack sporting skills, and this undermines their self-confidence”, notes Mme Leduc.
Plus d’obstacles
Some obstacles also relate to safety, whether the fears come from parents or the adolescents themselves. Is the locker room deserted, in the middle of nowhere in the school? And for physical activities done outside of school hours – because this is the ultimate goal, that girls do sport for pleasure – “is the cycle path lit enough” to get to the gym or to the municipal swimming pool?
Without overgeneralizing, Mme Leduc also points out that girls, unlike boys, like to cool off minimally after physical activity. Schools often do not have enough changing rooms for a shower to be taken, but the girls at least want to be able to give themselves a little toilet, to have time to fix their hair a little (the boys, with their often short hair, have less to deal with this issue).
“Adolescent girls often give up doing activities at lunchtime due to lack of time to refresh themselves” before returning to class.
But above all, we still need to offer girls activities that they enjoy, and not just team sports “with a goal on one side, a goal on the other and lines on the side”, illustrates Mme Leduc.
Not all – some teenagers love to fight for a ball – but in general, girls like competition, timed activity less, she continues.
What do they generally like?
Teenage girls closely follow trends, new activities, Zumba or yoga, for example.
Marie-Ève Mathieu, associate professor at the School of Kinesiology and Physical Activity Sciences at the University of Montreal, who spent five years studying the usefulness of the Fitactive program
The outdoors, too: jogging in a group without the pressure of a stopwatch, climbing a mountain, doing obstacle courses are activities that teenagers enjoy.
The usefulness of the program confirmed
For the purposes of her study, Professor Marie-Ève Mathieu followed 3,584 girls supported by Fitactive. Are those who attend schools subscribing to the program more active? Are their other lifestyle habits – sleep, nutrition – also indirectly improved?
The study of Mme Mathieu concludes that yes. Among girls who were inactive at the start of the FitSpirit program, 32% increased their level of physical activity.
And if this was not the direct goal, the more years they had followed the program, the more the adolescents’ sleep had improved.
“And between the beginning and the end of the school year, we observed that the girls ate fewer sweets,” says M.me Mathieu.
Furthermore, school officials observed that students in the FitSpirit program had much more self-confidence, had improved their physical skills and were more participatory.
Although Mme Mathieu notes that inactive boys – who are also very numerous – would also benefit from a program designed tailor-made for them.
Mme Mathieu also finds it regrettable that very often, young people – girls and boys – are called upon to specialize in a single sport very early on.
Instead of having a club that offers diving, swimming and water polo, a 10-year-old child will be asked to choose diving exclusively.
Geneviève Leduc, senior program advisor at Fitactive
“Girls also often do figure skating or gymnastics during childhood. However, if they grow a lot, this often leads them to abandon these sports – particularly gymnastics. »
And after years of intensive practice, during adolescence, not having been exposed to other sports, the risk of girls becoming inactive is increased.
1. Lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical activity and screen time among young CanadiansStatistics Canada, October 2023.
2. The Rallying Signal, Women and Sport in Canada (2020).
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