Hispanic Girls Don’t Play Sports

14-year-old
Natalie Gonzalez did something her mother, and grandmother, never
imagined. She joined the soccer team.

Natalie says, “I like being with my friends at school because
I get to know them better. Also, it just feels good when you win
a game for your school.” Her mother, Magda Gonzalez, says, “I
also remember when I told my parents that she was going to be playing
soccer, they were kind of shocked. You know, ‘A girl playing
soccer? What are you doing to her?’”

Across the country, only 36 percent of Hispanic girls in the
tenth grade play a sport, compared to 52% of non-Hispanic girls.
Why?

Milena Garcia Skollar, a family therapist and licensed social
worker in Atlanta, says, “It could be childcare, taking care
of younger siblings. It could be translation. Perhaps you know
English a little bit better than your Mom does, and so she needs
you to go to the bank with her.”

Skollar says, in the Hispanic culture, girls are not always encouraged
to be athletes. Magda Gonzalez says, “The concept is the
female is pretty much trained to take care of the house and the
kids.”

For years, playing sports has been a way for boys and men to gain confidence
and make friends. It is an important cultural and social experience in America.
And now, the same benefits that boys have enjoyed are available for most girls,
too. The Women’s Sports Foundation lists the following advantages for
girls who play sports:

• High school girls who play sports are less likely to be involved
  in an unwanted pregnancy, more likely to get better grades in school
  and more likely to graduate than girls who do not play sports.
• As little as four hours of exercise a week may reduce a teenage
  girl’s risk of breast cancer by up to 60 percent. Breast
  cancer is a disease that afflicts one out of every eight American
  women.
• One out of every two women over the age of 60 suffers from osteoporosis
  (brittle bones). None of us should want our daughters to repeat
  the experiences of generations of women – our mothers and
  grandmothers – who were not permitted to play sports or encouraged
  to participate in weight-bearing exercises that are necessary to
  establishing bone mass.
• Girls and women who play sports have higher levels of confidence
  and self-esteem and lower levels of depression.
• Girls and women who play sports have a more positive body image
  and experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls
  and women who do not play sports.
• It is no accident that 80 percent
  of the female executives at Fortune 500 companies identified
  themselves as former “tomboys” – having
  played sports.

Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) shows that students who play sports are less likely to be regular and
heavy smokers. Students who play at least one sport are 40 percent less likely
to be regular smokers and 50 percent less likely to be heavy smokers. The
lower rates of smoking for student athletes may be related to a number of
factors:

• Greater self-confidence gained from playing sports
• Additional counseling from coaching staff about smoking
• Reduced peer pressure to smoke
• Perceptions about reduced sports performance because of smoking
• Greater awareness about the health consequences of smoking

The CDC says sports and exercise are positive alternatives to smoking
for girls. Playing sports gives adolescent women independence, status
with peers, a chance to make friends, relaxation, weight control
and more. According to the CDC, girls who play sports learn the following
life skills:

• Teamwork
• Goal-setting
• The experience of success
• The pursuit of excellence in performance
• How to deal with failures

As a parent, how can you encourage your daughter to participate
in sports? The Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women
and Sport and Physical Activity offers the following advice for keeping
your child interested in sporting activities:

• Actively support your child’s involvement in physical
  activity. Buy her good equipment, watch her games and consider
  volunteering as a coach.
• Take your daughter to the park and be active with her. Help
  your daughter learn the fundamental skills of running, throwing,
  catching and kicking.
• Be an active role model yourself. Mothers who participate in
  sports increase their child’s participation rate by 22 percent.
  Fathers increase that rate by 11 percent.
• Emphasize fun and fitness rather than competition and slimness.
  Encourage your daughter to try a variety of new activities, and
  help her acquire the skills and equipment needed for participation.
  Consistently offer praise and support to your child.
• Introduce
  your daughter to active female athletes. Buy sports books about
  successful female athletes. Watch sporting events on television
  and attend competitions in your community.

Centers for Disease Control
Canadian Association for the Advancement
of Women and Sport and Physical Activity
Women’s Sports
Foundation