Adolescent Female Soccer Players Research Articles

Levels of Social Complexity and Dimensions of Peer Experiences in Youth Sport

We assessed young adolescent female soccer players' perceptions of their peer group experiences. Data were collected via interviews with 34 girls from two youth soccer teams (M age = 13.0 years). Following inductive discovery analysis, data were subjected to an interpretive theoretical analysis guided by a model of peer experiences (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006). Five categories of peer experiences were identified across three levels of social complexity. At the interaction level players integrated new members into the team and learned to interact with different types of people. At the relationship level players learned about managing peer conflict. At the group level a structure of leadership emerged and players learned to work together. Findings demonstrated interfaces between peer interactions, relationships, and group processes while also simplifying some apparently complex systems that characterized peer experiences on the teams studied.

A Comparison of Bone Mineral Density in Adolescent Female Swimmers, Soccer Players, and Weight Lifters

The study was designed to examine the effect of sports of varying skeletal loading on bone density in adolescent female athletes. Bone mineral densities of female swimmers, soccer players, and weight lifters were examined. Between-sport comparisons were made using a one-way analysis of covariance with age and body mass index as covariates and group bone mass density (BMD) was compared to the World Health Organization's (WHO) normative values for adult females. BMD was significantly greater in the soccer group compared to the weight lifting (p = 0.025) and swimming groups (p = 0.001) with no difference between weight-lifting and swimming groups (p = 0.209). Compared to normative data from the WHO, soccer was the only sport whose participants' BMDs were significantly greater than adult norms (p = 0.003), while those of the swimmers were significantly less (p < 0.001) than adult females, and the weight lifters were not different (p = 0.103). Participation in sports such as soccer or weight lifting with significant skeletal loading may enhance BMD in adolescent females.

Age and Gender Effects on Lower Extremity Kinematics of Youth Soccer Players in a Stop-Jump Task

Background Gender differences in lower extremity motion patterns were previously identified as a possible risk factor for non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injuries in sports. Hypothesis Gender differences in lower extremity kinematics in the stop-jump task are functions of age for youth soccer players between 11 and 16 years of age. Study Design Descriptive laboratory study. Methods Three-dimensional videographic data were collected for 30 male and 30 female adolescent soccer players between 11 and 16 years of age performing a stop-jump task. The age effects on hip and knee joint angular motions were compared between genders using multiple regression analyses with dummy variables. Results Gender and age have significant interaction effects on standing height (P = .00), body mass (P = .00), knee flexion angle at initial foot contact with the ground (P = .00), maximum knee flexion angle (P = .00), knee valgus-varus angle (P = .00), knee valgus-varus motion (P = .00), and hip flexion angle at initial foot contact with the ground (P = .00). Conclusion Youth female recreational soccer players have decreased knee and hip flexion angles at initial ground contact and decreased knee and hip flexion motions during the landing of the stop-jump task compared to those of their male counterparts. These gender differences in knee and hip flexion motion patterns of youth recreational soccer players occur after 12 years of age and increase with age before 16 years. Clinical Relevance The results of this study provide significant information for research on the prevention of noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries.

Injuries in adolescent female players in European football: a prospective study over one outdoor soccer season.

In this prospective study, injuries in 153 adolescent female soccer players were recorded during one outdoor season (April-October). The overall injury incidence rate was 6.8 per 1000 h soccer (games and practice) and the incidence rate of traumatic injury 9.1 and 1.5 per 1000 player-hours in games and practice, respectively. Sixty-three players (41%) sustained 79 injuries. Sixty-six percent of the injuries were traumatic and 34% were overuse injuries. Most of the traumatic injuries occurred during games. Eighty-nine percent of the injuries were located in the lower extremities and 42% occurred in the knee or ankle. The most frequent type of injury was ankle sprain (22.8%). Forty-one percent of the traumatic injuries and 56% of the ankle sprains were re-injuries. Most of the injuries were of moderate severity (52%), while 34% were minor and 14% were major. Most of the major injuries were traumatic such as knee ligament injuries and ankle sprains.

Avoidance of Soccer Injuries with Preseason Conditioning

The effect of a preseason conditioning program was studied to evaluate its influence on the occurrence and severity of soccer injuries. Three hundred female soccer players (ages 14 to 18 years) were studied over a 1-year period. Forty-two of these players participated in a 7-week training program before the start of the season. The type, mechanism, and severity of the injury, when the injury occurred, the number of games or practices missed, and type of shoe worn were recorded. All injuries occurred in the lower extremities, with 61.2% occurring at the knee and ankle. Student's t-test evaluations revealed that the trained group experienced a significantly lower incidence of injury than the untrained group (P = 0.0085). Although not statistically significant, the trained group also had a lower percentage (2.4%) of anterior cruciate ligament injuries compared with the untrained group (3.1%). These results suggest that this type of conditioning has a significant influence on lowering the incidence of injury in female adolescent soccer players.

Anthropometric, Muscular Fitness, and Injury History Comparisons by Gender of Youth Soccer Teams

Soccer knee injuries are common and adolescent girls are particularly at risk. This investigation compared and contrasted anthropometric, fitness, agility, playing experience, ankle/knee injury history, and footwear between adolescent female and male soccer players, and compared them with selected age- and gender-matched norms. Two soccer clubs (1 F, 1 M, 16 members each) participated in this investigation. Boys were stronger, taller, leaner, and more agile, and had more endurance, while girls had greater musculotendinous extensibility (p ≤ 0.001). Female lean body mass standardization produced nonsignificant (p > 0.05) torque or single-leg broad jump differences. No differences were found for abdominal muscle endurance. Ankle/knee injury history revealed nonsignificant differences. Girls had less ankle plantar flexor extensibility (p < 0.001). This may provide them compensatory dynamic joint stability for injury prevention in the presence of commonly related differences in knee muscle torque production, knee biomechanics, body fat %, and footwear fit.

Psychosocial predictors of goal orientations in youth soccer.

Little is known about the nature of task and ego orientations that are key motivation constructs. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine the extent to which perceived social, contextual, and personal factors predicted the goal orientations of youth sport participants. The sample consisted of 166 male and female adolescent soccer players, who completed self-report measures at the end of a 7-week competitive season. A canonical correlation analysis revealed that the set of predictor variables accounted for 24% of the variance in player goal orientations. Higher scores on perceived soccer competence, perceived parent task orientation, and particularly perceived parent ego orientation were primarily associated with higher scores on player ego orientation. In addition, higher scores on perceived soccer competence, perceived parent task orientation, and perceived mastery climate, as well as lower scores on perceived performance climate, were associated with a higher level of player task orientation. These findings are interpreted and discussed in terms of future research directions.