Sports Participation and Physical Education in American Secondary Schools

Background

The purpose of this study was to determine the current levels of physical education (PE) and sports participation among American secondary school students, and to establish the extent to which they vary by grade level, racial/ethnic background, and socioeconomic status (SES) of the students.

Methods

Nationally representative data were used from over 500 schools and 54,000 students surveyed in 2003, 2004, and 2005 as part of the Youth, Education, and Society (YES) study and the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study. As part of YES, school administrators completed questionnaires on physical activity (including rates of sports and PE participation) of students in their schools. Students in the same schools completed self-administered questionnaires in the same year as part of MTF, providing individual background data, including their gender, racial/ethnic identification, and parents’ education level. Data were analyzed in 2006.

Results

Physical education requirements, and actual student participation rates, decline substantially between 8th and 12th grades. About 87% of 8th graders were in schools that required them to take PE, compared to only 20% of 12th graders. Principals estimate that over 90% of 8th graders actually take PE, compared to 34% of 12th graders. Subgroup differences in PE participation rates were small. Only a fraction of all students participate in varsity sports during the school year, with girls participating only slightly less than boys (33% vs 37%). Participation correlates negatively with SES and was lower among black and Hispanic students than white students, even after controlling for other variables. Participation rates in intramural sports were even lower, declined in higher grades, and were lower among low-SES and Hispanic students (after controlling for other variables).

Conclusions

Physical education is noticeably lacking in American high schools for all groups. Racial/ethnic minorities and low-SES youth, who are at higher than average risk of being overweight in adolescence, are getting less exercise due to their lower participation in school sports. Disparities in resources available to minorities and lower-SES youth may help explain the differences in participation rates.

Introduction

Involvement in physical activity is considered a primary contributor to preventing youth from gaining weight and becoming overweight.1, 2, 3 Because youth spend much of their time in schools, these settings provide unique opportunities to encourage and facilitate physical activity, including the formation of long-term healthy activity behaviors.⁴ Yet, despite the growing prevalence of obesity among the nation’s youth,5, 6, 7, 8, 9 schools in the past decade have substantially reduced the opportunities for them to be physically active by shortening or eliminating recess, physical activity classes, and/or intramural and extracurricular sports activities,10, 11 very likely resulting in a substantial decrease in the percentage of youth who are physically active.6, 12, 13 These reductions may have resulted largely from a combination of budget shortages that schools and school districts have experienced as well as from the increasing pressure schools have received to direct their resources toward meeting academic standards imposed by the federal government, or face losing funds or suffering other consequences if these standards are not met.

As young people progress into higher grades, participation in physical activity appears to decrease steadily.14, 15, 16, 17, 18 Clearly, attending to the growing problems of overweight and obesity among youth has become a growing challenge facing today’s schools and communities. Consistent with the burden of disease falling on racial/ethnic minorities and on economically disadvantaged populations,19, 20 there is an overrepresentation of overweight and obese youth among some racial and ethnic minority youth (e.g., African-American females and Hispanic males) and among youth of lower-socioeconomic backgrounds.5, 7, 9, 21, 22, 23, 24 In light of these concerns, and in order to inform policy, it is important to examine and track what the nation’s schools are doing to facilitate youth participation in physical education classes and in athletic activities. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which students are engaged in physical activities provided by their schools and to examine how their levels of participation vary by grade level, racial/ethnic background, and socioeconomic status (SES). Gender differences in sports participation are also examined.