Social Interactions of Adolescent Girls During Sports Activity: Age and Sex Role Influences

Abstract

Few researchers have observed the social interactions of adolescent girls during sports activity. In this study we ascertained whether the nature of this interpersonal behavior varied between early and middle adolescence. Are middle adolescent girls less involved in sports activities than early adolescents, as theories of gender role socialization would lead us to expect? Furthermore, we sought to explain age effects in terms of differences in measured sex-role orientation. Twenty-one adolescent girls in 6th, 8th, and 10th grade PE classes were observed during mandatory volleyball games. Recorded behaviors were encouragement, assistance, negative expression, distraction, and avoidance. The girls also completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The age hypothesis was confirmed: 6th grade girls were most likely to encourage teammates and were least likely to engage in distracting behavior. Sex-role orientation did not explain the age difference in the behaviors in an overall sense, that is, when the five behaviors were considered simultaneously. When considered individually, however, the age difference in distracting behavior can be explained in part by group differences in sex-role orientation. The results contribute to a growing documentation of adolescent behavior in naturalistic settings.