Stuart Bradford

Almost four decades after the federal education law called Title IX opened the door for girls to participate in high school and college athletics, a crucial question has remained unanswered: Do sports make a long-term difference in a woman%u2019s life?

A large body of research shows that sports are associated with all sorts of benefits, like lower teenage pregnancy rates, better grades and higher self-esteem. But until now, no one has determined whether those improvements are a direct result of athletic participation. It may be that the type of girl who is attracted to sports already has the social, personal and physical qualities %u2014 like ambition, strength and supportive parents %u2014 that will help her succeed in life.

Now, separate studies from two economists offer some answers, providing the strongest evidence yet that team sports can result in lifelong improvements to educational, work and health prospects. At a time when the first lady, Michelle Obama, has begun a nationwide campaign to improve schoolchildren%u2019s health, the lessons from Title IX show that school-based fitness efforts can have lasting effects.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 required schools and colleges receiving federal money to provide the same opportunities for girls as they did for boys. Relatively few students, male or female, participate in intercollegiate sports. But the effects in high school were remarkable. Just six years after the enactment of Title IX, the percentage of girls playing team sports had jumped sixfold, to 25 percent from about 4 percent.

Most research on Title IX has looked at national trends in girls%u2019 sports. Betsey Stevenson, an economist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has taken it a step further, focusing on state-by-state variations.

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%u201CI looked to see what it means to add sports to girls%u2019 lives,%u201D she said. %u201CHow does it change things for them?%u201D

States with large boys%u2019 sports programs had to make bigger changes to achieve parity than states with smaller programs. Looking at the state-by-state statistics allowed Dr. Stevenson to narrow her focus, comparing differences in sports participation with differences in women%u2019s educational and work achievement.

So her study untangles the effects of sports participation from other confounding factors %u2014 school size, climate, social and personal differences among athletes %u2014 and comes far closer to determining a cause and effect relationship between high school sports participation and achievement later in life.

Using a complex analysis, Dr. Stevenson showed that increasing girls%u2019 sports participation had a direct effect on women%u2019s education and employment. She found that the changes set in motion by Title IX explained about 20 percent of the increase in women%u2019s education and about 40 percent of the rise in employment for 25-to-34-year-old women.

%u201CIt%u2019s not just that the people who are going to do well in life play sports, but that sports help people do better in life,%u201D she said, adding, %u201CWhile I only show this for girls, it%u2019s reasonable to believe it%u2019s true for boys as well.%u201D

Another question is whether Title IX has made a difference in women%u2019s long-term health. In a carefully conducted study, Robert Kaestner, an economics professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, compared rates of obesity and physical activity of women who had been in high school in the 1970s %u2014 as Title IX was taking effect %u2014 with similar women from earlier years. Controlling the results for other influences, like age and changing diets, Dr. Kaestner was able to tease out the effects Title IX had on women%u2019s health.

He found that the increase in girls%u2019 athletic participation caused by Title IX was associated with a 7 percent lower risk of obesity 20 to 25 years later, when women were in their late 30s and early 40s. His article was published this month in the journal Evaluation Review.

Dr. Kaestner notes that while a 7 percent decline in obesity is modest, no other public health program can claim similar success. And other studies have shown that even a small drop in weight can lower risk for diabetes and other health problems.

There is still room for improvement. Today about 1 in 3 high school girls play sports, compared with about half of all boys. And participation varies widely by state, according to Dr. Stevenson%u2019s research. Southern states like Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee still have big gender gaps, while Northern states like Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Vermont are closer to parity.

%u201CWhile we have more girls than ever before, we still have far more boys playing sports than girls,%u201D said Nicole M. LaVoi, associate director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota. %u201CThe research clearly states that when anybody, boys and girls, are physically active, they can reap developmental and health benefits. But we haven%u2019t reached equality yet.%u201D

No way! Cool :) Go sporty girls, go!