Do High School Sports Really Reduce Unplanned Pregnancy?

My mother-in-law has always told her daughters (including my wife) that teen girls who participate in sports are less likely to have unplanned pregnancy because they’re more distracted. She says there’s “data” to support this, but ignoring the dual responsibility for pregnancy, I’m doubtful. Are there any studies on this?

—Mother-in-Law Knows Best?

We here at ParentData love our mothers-in-law (hi, Joyce!) and are willing to admit when they are right. Your mother-in-law has something here, but not the whole story (in my view).

There is a fairly large body of evidence showing that participation in high school sports for girls (but not boys) is associated with reduced sexual activity and, likely as a direct result, lower pregnancy rates. What is less clear is whether this relationship is causal, as your mother-in-law suggests it might be. Even if it is causal, the mechanism by which it might be true is not obvious.

Girls who participate in high school sports tend to be different, on average — some of this is family and school resources, some is more individual-based differences. These differences may well drive the correlations we see, rather than something causal.

Having said that: there is some work that exploits the introduction of Title IX, which led to a dramatic expansion of girls’ sports participation. Data from that time period suggests that girls playing sports had a causal impact on college attendance and participation in the labor force as adults. We do not, to my knowledge, have similar evidence of a reduction in teen pregnancy rates.

In the end: she’s right about the correlation, and she’s right that there is some causal evidence of benefits for girls. But the causality on the particular question of pregnancy is not quite there.