Girls Active 2017-2019 Report

• 23% of secondary aged girls do not do any sport or physical activity outside of school.
• Year 10 Girls more likely to be concerned about body image.

Motivations

• Girls are less likely to enjoy competition than boys, however competition does not emerge as a big motivating factor for boys or girls to be physically active.
• For all girls having fun is the biggest motivator followed by being with friends and feeling happy at primary school and being healthy and feeling good at secondary.
• For boys the third biggest motivator for taking part in physical activity is gaining new skills while it is the sixth biggest motivator for girls.

Barriers

• For secondary aged pupils boys were more than twice as likely as girls to say they have no barriers to sport and physical activity than girls.
• For girls from BAME backgrounds, having their period is the biggest barrier to sport and physical activity.
• 26% of girls say they do not have time because of their school work.
• I’m not confident came across as first barrier for secondary (ahead of I don’t like other people watching me and my period) and second barrier for primary (behind I don’t like getting hot and sweaty and ahead of I’m not good at it.)
• Secondary aged girls with SEND state confidence as an even bigger barrier (36% compared to 28%).

Wellbeing

• Girls who were more active were more likely to agree to questions around personal wellbeing, including confidence, resilience and happiness.
• Over 3 quarters of more active girls responded as being resilient compared to under half of less active girls.
• 29% of girls are not happy with how their body looks.
• Girls happy with how their body looks decreases throughout secondary school and by year 13 only 9% are happy with how their body looks.