"Another piece of troubling news," LaVoi said, "is that girls continue to face a great deal more barriers to physical activity than do boys due to, for example, the construction of gender roles around what it means to be a girl; to be pretty and feminine, which is in opposition to what it means to be athletic and active."
Other barriers include poverty; family values, with some parents valuing physical activity more for boys than girls; less active parental role models; girls feeling less physically competent than boys; and structural and funding inequalities in terms of girls and boys sports programs.
"Although we've made progress in the last 10 years, the barriers that limit girls' participation are still firmly in place," LaVoi said. "There is a great deal of work to be done" to break these barriers, she concludes.
