the chastain effect

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The Chastain Effect: Using Title IX to Measure the Causal Effect of Participating in High School Sports on Adult Women’s Social Lives

Phoebe Clarke and Ian Ayres

Abstract:

Many studies have sought to estimate the effects of participating in sports on ex-athletes’ adult lives. This paper contributes to the existing literature in two ways. First, it adopts an instrumental-variables method pioneered by Betsey Stevenson (2010) in which variation in rates of boys’ athletic participation across states before the passage of Title IX is used to instrument for changes in girls’ athletic participation following its passage, thereby avoiding selection bias and allowing for causal estimates. Second, it looks at the effect of participating in sports not on economic, but on social outcomes. In particular, we find that a ten percentage-point increase in state-level female sports participation generates a five to six percentage-point rise in the rate of female secularism, a five percentage-point increase in the proportion of women who are mothers, and a six percentage-point rise in the proportion of mothers who, at the time that they are interviewed, are single mothers. While our results appear to paint a picture of independence from potentially patriarchal institutions (church and marriage), further research is necessary to understand whether our results can be attributed to a single story such as this one or whether they are the products of multiple causal mechanisms.

I. Introduction

After scoring the winning penalty kick for the United States in the 1999 Women’s World Cup, Brandi Chastain ripped off her jersey and flung herself to her knees, fists clenched to the sky in victory. The image spread rapidly, from the 100,000 people who filled the California stadium to the cover of Sports Illustrated above a caption that read, “Yes!” Perhaps becoming the most iconic photograph in female sports, it is a picture of strength, power, independence, and rebellion, and, at the same time, sports bra exposed, femininity. Brandi Chastain later reflected, “I believe the ‘moment’ stoked the flame for the need to highlight and protect Title IX, but also brought the critics or naysayers of women in sports to rethink their position and also accept the new normal.”1

Title IX drastically increased the proportion of female high school students participating in sports from 1 in 27 females in 1972 to 1 in 4 in 1978. To understand the full impact of Title IX, it is necessary to understand the effect that participating in sports has on women. Many studies have attempted to do so, but most are deeply flawed. By comparing women who choose to play sports with women who do not, these studies are vulnerable to self-selection bias and therefore do not capture the causal effects of sports participation. Betsey Stevenson (2010) avoids this pitfall by identifying a powerful instrumental variable for female sports participation, and estimates the effects of sports participation

1 Denia Ebersole and Nicolas Perdomo, “Sports Bras: An Uplifting Technology,” http://sportsbrasts112.wordpress.com/brandI-chastaIn-epIsode/.

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on female economic outcomes such as educational attainment, employment, and income. We use the same instrument to estimate the impact of Title IX on a variety of social outcomes.

Few studies have looked at the effect of sports participation on social variables. Yet the divided reactions to recent publications such as Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” and Sheryl Sandberg’s bestselling book “Lean In” reveal the high level of interest in understanding what drives women’s lives, including the non-economic factors. This paper attempts to estimate the effect that athletic participation has had on key social aspects in women’s lives. Specifically, it evaluates the effect of participation on religiosity, motherhood, single motherhood, trust of others, and political affiliation. Our results support the hypothesis that the sentiments portrayed in Brandi Chastain’s moment of victory—power, independence, and rebellion—have colored the non-athletic aspects of the lives of former high school athletes, leading them to reject potentially patriarchal structures like church and marriage. We acknowledge, however, that further research is necessary to identify the causal mechanism—or mechanisms—driving our results. We merely advance this organizing hypothesis as one possibility.2

This paper proceeds as follows. First, we review existing theories of how sport affects athletes and discuss their implications for social outcomes. Next, we describe Stevenson’s methodology and explain how we apply it to our data. Finally, we present our results as well as the results of several robustness checks that we conducted.

II. Theory

Studies that seek to estimate the effects of sports participation adopt a variety of theories. Three appear to be particularly useful for understanding how sports participation might affect the social outcomes studied in this paper.

The first and most popular theory emphasizes the effects of sports on the individual participant’s personal development. Studies that take this angle aim to answer the question, “Does participating in sports build character?” Most find that participating in sports does build character, which they demonstrate either by analyzing character traits directly or by looking at outcome variables, such as educational attainment, employment, and income, and speculating as to what the results suggest about the effect of sports on character. Long and Caudill (1991), for example, find a positive relationship between sports participation and income, and hypothesize that this is because sports enhances the development of discipline, confidence, motivation, competitiveness, and other subjective traits that encourage success.

A subset of the sport-builds-character theory tests the relationship between athletic participation and mental health. Participating in sport has been found to increase self-

2 It is true that many successful women with professional careers, such as Sheryl Sandberg and Brandi Chastain, are married. This fact, however, is not necessarily opposed to our hypothesis. Women who participate in sports may “reject marriage” by getting divorces when they find themselves in unhappy marriages. Indeed, Sheryl Sandberg married and divorced before marrying her current husband. The more serious challenge to our hypothesis is that it is undermined by our finding that sports participation causes women to be more likely to have children. We address this contention in Part VI.

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esteem (Statistics Canada 2001). Teenagers who participate in sports are more likely to believe that their opinions matter (Statistics Canada 2001), and females who participate in sports are less likely to have suicidal thoughts (Sabo et al. 2005). In fact, merely identifying with a sports team is enough to reduce depression and foster feelings of self-worth (Branscombe and Wann 1991). Playing sports has also been linked to feelings of self-efficacy and control over one’s life (Brown et al. 1992; Fejgin 1994). Athletic participation, this suggests, can not only make women happier, but also empower them: by making people physically and mentally stronger and promoting emotional development, sports participation fosters independence and initiative (Larson 2000).3

A second theory focuses on the social connectedness that sports participation promotes. Since high school athletics are organized around teams, athletic participation affects not only people’s personal success, but also their interactions with others. Given that relationships with others are at least partially influenced by personal attributes such as respect, cooperation, and communication, this angle is not unrelated to the first. However, unlike the first, it takes a macro perspective, focusing on the effects of sports participation on society rather than on individual participants’ personal accomplishments.

There is wide empirical support for the theory that athletics is a socializing force. Team practice and the high-stress environment of competition are conducive to the development of social skills such as cooperation, responsibility, and empathy (Cote 2002). Playing sports forces students to interact with others from a wide variety of backgrounds, including individuals whom they might not have chosen as friends, thereby improving their ability to relate to others (Hultsman 1996). Children who participate in sports have been found to be much more likely to see their classmates outside school and less likely to report having problems with friends (Statistics Canada 2001). Branta and Goodway (1996) find that physical activity reduces antisocial behavior, such as fights and confrontations, among young children, and improves their ability to cooperate and resolve interpersonal disputes. Moreover, the social skills that athletes develop in school survive graduation: athletes carry these skills into their adult lives (Barber, Eccles, and Stone (2001)), and, as a result, are more socially engaged adults. Participation in school sports, for example, has been associated with increased civic engagement (Braddock et al. 2007; Quintelier 2008) and community involvement (Perks 2007) later in life. Perhaps this is because ex-athletes seek to perpetuate the sense of belonging to something larger than themselves that being on a sports team provided.

A third theory considers the effect of allocating a significant share of a finite stock of time to sports practice and competitions, leaving less for other pursuits. Coleman (1961), 3 In contrast, Rees et al. (1990) argue that the sport-builds-character theory is a myth, finding that participation in varsity athletics is unrelated to positive personality characteristics, and that, if anything, sports may reduce independence and self-control- perhaps as a result of the herd-mentality engendered by participation in team sports. In this vein, several studies find that students who participate in athletics have higher rates of drinking than those who do not, both in high school and later in life (Barber, Eccles, and Stone 2001; Eccles and Barber 1999; Long and Caudill 1991). While such negative results are compelling, the fact that robust studies like Stephenson’s (2010) have found strong relationships between sports and economic outcomes undermine the “sports does not build character” argument.

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for example, argues that time spent on sports diverts attention from academics, leading to less time spent on homework and a lower investment in school.

A fourth theory is that participating in high school sports has no effect on women’s adult lives. Many activities are close substitutes to sports. Playing in a high school marching band, for example, requires dedication, cooperation, teamwork, and even physical exertion. Acting in a school play may engender confidence, leadership, and independence. If athletics merely replaces such activities, it is possible that we will see no significant effect of sports participation on adult social outcomes.

Taken together, these competing theories provide no precise prediction about the impact of sports participation on our social outcomes, namely religiosity, motherhood, single motherhood, trust of others, and political affiliation. For example, under the sports-builds-character theory, it is possible that sports participation would decrease religiosity and childbearing and increase single motherhood and liberalism as increased confidence, self-efficiency, and feelings of control gained through sports participation obviate the need for spiritual support, lead women to place more focus on their careers and less on their personal lives, motivate unhappily-married women to get divorced, and cause women to reject the conservative mindset. Alternatively, the social-connectedness theory suggests that sports participation might increase religiosity and childbearing as ex-athletes, having enjoyed the social nature of sports, gravitate towards organized religion as a replacement and, equipped with their increased ability to socialize, meet a wider variety of men, making it more likely that they will find one with whom to reproduce. This theory might also suggest that sports participation would cause women to be less likely to be single mothers as they are more able to resolve disagreements, and more willing to trust others, as they have become accustomed to doing so on the playing field. Finally, the limited-time theory might lead us to believe that sports participation would decrease religiosity and childbearing, both of which, like athletics, require time. The ambiguity created by these competing theories motivates our attempt to empirically assess the causal impact of Title IX.

III. Method

Many studies that estimate the effects of participating in sports are cross-sectional: they compare individuals who participated in sports to those who did not, and attribute differences in outcomes to sports participation. But differences might be due, at least in part, to pre-existing individual characteristics that impacted students’ decisions to participate in sports. Greater motivation, for example, may cause the same children both to sign up for sports and to seek college degrees. The choice to participate in sports is not exogenously determined. As a result, estimates from cross-sectional studies are prone to selection bias: they capture not only the treatment effects of sports participation, but also the selection effects. Controlling for observables such as race, parental income, and school quality, can eliminate several sources of bias. But other sources, such as ambition, self-esteem, and social skills, are more difficult to measure. And, even if they could be measured, controlling for them would be misguided, as they are likely to be endogenously influenced by sports participation.

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One way to measure the causal impact of sports participation would be to randomly assign children to participation. Another would be to randomly assign different levels of athletic opportunities to different schools and compare students across schools. Although neither of these policy experiments exists, Stevenson (2010) identifies one that does: Title IX. Stevenson uses Title IX as a quasi-experiment to estimate the causal effects of sports participation on educational and economic outcomes. We adopt her method in order to estimate the effects of sports participation on social outcomes.

Title IX of the Educational Amendments to the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress in 1972 and prohibited gender discrimination in federally funded educational institutions. States were required to provide girls with the same opportunities as boys to participate in sports. At the time that Title IX was passed, boys’ rates of participation were far above girls,’ as illustrated in Figure 1. Title IX placed pressure on states to raise female sports participation rates to existing male rates, which they did, increasing them in the aggregate from under 5 percent in 1971 to over 25 percent in 1978. Because all states had similarly low rates of female sports participation, the amount of pressure that Title IX placed on each state depended on the existing level of male sports participation: states with higher levels of male sports participation had more work to do to bring their female sports opportunities to the level of their men’s. Figure 2 illustrates that male sports participation, and thus pressure to increase female sports participation, varied across states. In some states, male sports participation rates were as low as 20 percent while in others they were above 100 percent.4 This variation creates a natural experiment that circumvents the self-selection problems inherent in cross-sectional studies. By comparing women in states with greater levels of 1971 male sports participation and thus greater increases in female sports participation to women in states with lower levels of 1971 male sports participation and thus lower increases In female sports participation, Stevenson relies on variation that women do not choose, avoiding self-selection bias.

Econometrically, Stevenson runs a two-stage-least-squares regression in which she uses 1971 male sports participation to instrument for the change in female sports participation between 1971, before Title IX was passed, and 1978, when states were required to be in full compliance. States with higher 1971 male sports participation rates are expected to have had higher changes in female sports participation as Title IX’s equality mandates required them to make greater investments in women’s athletics than states with lower levels of male participation. To test this hypothesis, Stevenson runs the following first stage regressions:

Girls’ participations1978 = α + β Boys’ sports participations

1971 + εs (1) and Girls’ participations

1978 - Girls’ participations1971 = α + β (Boys’ participations

1971) + εs (2) Columns 1 and 2 of Table 1 show the results of estimating these two regressions. The coefficients are significant and suggest that states with a 10-percentage point higher level

4 A rate of greater than 100 percent is possible because boys who participated in more than one sport are counted twice.

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of male sports participation increased female sports participation by 3 to 4 percentage points. The R-squared statistics indicate that 1971 male sports participation is a strong instrument for either 1978 female sports participation or the change in female sports participation between 1971 and 1978. The similarities between the two regressions are due to the fact that girls’ participation rates were equally close to zero in most states. As a result, either specification could be used. Because 1971 levels of girls’ participation are measured with considerable error and are likely to be correlated with state norms regarding women, Stevenson adopts (1), and so do we. In the placebo regression in column 3 of Table 1, boys’ sports participation in 1981 is found to be uncorrelated with subsequent (1981-1988) changes in female sports participation, suggesting that Title IX, rather than other trends, are responsible for the relationship between 1971 boys’ sports participation and 1978 girls’ sports participation. IV. Results

We use data on 30-40 year old females from the General Social Survey (GSS) covering 27 years between 1973 until 2010 across 49 states and the District of Columbia.5 The GSS is conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. It monitors social change and, after the Census, is the most frequently analyzed source of information in the social sciences.6

We restrict GSS data to respondents who completed tenth grade and who either attended high school before Title IX was passed in 1972 or after it came into full effect in 1978. 7 For a discussion of the effect of Title IX on social outcomes on the partially treated women excluded by this filter, see the robustness check in Part V.

Summary statistics are presented in Table 2. In the aggregate, women who attended high school after Title IX are less religious than women who attended high school before Title IX. Fewer of the women who attended high school after Title IX are mothers. However, more of these post-Title IX mothers are single mothers than are their pre-Title IX counterparts. Finally, women who attended high school after Title IX are less trusting of others and less Democratic (as opposed to Republican or Independent). While interesting, Table 2 is of limited informative value. Because the summary statistics do not control for time and other factors that likely account for differences in social outcomes between the cohorts, the differences cannot be attributed to athletic participation.

a. Religiosity

I calculate two measures of secularity. The first, “De Facto Secular – attendance,” is a binary variable equal to one for women who attend religious services no more than once

5 The GSS was conducted annually from 1972 through 1993 and every other (even) year beginning in 1994. The survey was not conducted in 1979, 1981, and 1992. We exclude 1972 from my sample because geographic information is missing for respondents in that year. Iowa is excluded from the sample because it did not begin collecting data on female sports participation until 1981. 6 GSS Website. About Us: http://www3.norc.org/GSS+IbsIte/About+GSS/. 7 We do so because Title IX applied to high schools, and, as a result, is less likely to have had an effect on women who attended high school for less than 2 years.

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a year and zero for woman who attend religious services more than once a year.8 The second, “De Facto Secular – affiliation,” is a binary variable equal to one for women who have no religious affiliation or describe the strength of their affiliation as “not very strong” and zero for women who report “strong” or “somewhat strong” affiliations.

I then regress each woman’s De Facto Secular value on the level of athletic participation that existed for her cohort in the state in which she attended high school:9

Seculari,s,t = α + β Athletic ParticipationIVi,s,t + Σ ηsStates + Σ χtYeart + Xi,s,t λ + εi,s,t (3)

The instrument for athletic participation is the interaction of the level of boys’ athletic participation in the woman’s state in 1971 (immediately before Title IX came into effect) and a dummy variable equal to one if she attended high school after Title IX came into effect. The instrument therefore takes on a value of zero for a woman who went to school before Title IX came into effect and a value equal to the 1971 level of boys’ sports participation in her state if she went to school after Title IX came into effect.

Table 3 shows the results of these secularity regressions. The first row shows the instrumental effect of athletic participation on the probability of being secular. The coefficient in column one suggests that a 10-percentage point increase in female athletic participation in a state generates a 3.9 percentage point increase in the probability that women in that state will be secular. Measuring secularity based on religious affiliation results in a similar estimate of 4.5 percentage points in column four. Both regressions include a saturated set of dummy variables for race, age, year, and high school state. Standard errors are clustered at the state-year level. The second row reports the reduced form estimate of the relationship between secularity and the instrumental variable. The third row reports the results from the first stage regressions.

Regressions displayed in the second and fifth columns include fixed effects for the geographic region of high school and geographic region interacted with year dummies. Adding these controls addresses the possibility that pre-Title IX levels of male sports participation vary by region, and that regional trends correlated with secularity but unrelated to sports participation are driving the results. Once these controls are added, the coefficients on secularity increase slightly to 4.6 and 5.3 for secularity based on attendance and strength of affiliation, respectively. The coefficients remain significant, indicating that the relationship between sports participation and secularity is not due to regional time trends.

8 This definition of “De Facto Secular” is adopted from Charles Murray, who used it to demonstrate the decline of religiosity in America in his 2013 bestselling book “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.” 9 For women surveyed from 1978 through 2010, state in which they attended high school is the state that they lived in at age 16. State at age 16 is not available for women surveyed before 1978: for these women, state in which they attended high schools is the state In which they lived at the time of the survey, and women that report currently living in a different state than at 16 are excluded from the sample. Similar results for all dependent variables are obtained when separate regressions are run for 1978-2010 respondents using state at age 16 and for 1973-2010 respondents using current state and restricting to respondents who report living in the same state as at age 16.

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The third and sixth columns add controls for education as measured by the number of years of schooling each woman received. Doing so addresses the contention that sports participation does not have an effect on religiosity independent of the effect it has on education and employment estimated by Stevenson. That is, it could be the case that participating in sports causes women to become more educated and employed and that women who are more educated and employed are less likely to be religious—perhaps because they have less time for church and replace spiritual pursuits with intellectual ones, but not because they participated in sports. Adding education reveals that this is not the case: the relationship between sports and secularism remains significant and increases slightly. Therefore, the effect of athletic participation on religiosity is independent of its effect on education.

b. Motherhood and Marriage

Table 4 presents the results of performing the same regressions as those in Table 3, but this time looking at the effect of participating in sports on the probability of having a child and becoming a single mother. “Motherhood” is a binary variable equal to one for women who report having had at least one child and zero for women with no children. The results in the first row of the first columns reveal that a ten percentage point increase in a state’s level of female sports participation causes a 2.9 percentage point increase in the probability that women in that state will have children. This relationship remains significant and increases to 3.9 percentage points when regional time trends are added, and to 4.9 percentage points when education is added. This result is particularly interesting given that the rate of motherhood in the sample decreased from 93 percent in 1973 to 75 percent in 2010: the increase in female athletic participation due to Title IX counteracted this decline.

Results in column four demonstrate that mothers who participated in high school athletics are more likely to be single mothers at the time that they are interviewed. “Single Mother” is a binary variable equal to one if a woman has had a child and is currently divorced, separated, or has never been married and zero if she has a child but is married or widowed.10 A 10-percentage point increase in female sports participation generates a 3.9 percentage point increase in the probability of being a single mother. Results in the fifth and sixth columns demonstrate that these relationships are robust to adding region-time trends and independent of the effect of sports participation on education estimated by Stevenson.11

10 Widowed mothers were excluded from the single motherhood classification in order to align the variable with the colloquial meaning of the word, limiting the single motherhood assignment to women have to some extent “chosen” to be separated from their children’s father. However, similar results are obtained when widowed mothers are classified as single mothers. Readers should be careful in interpreting the “Single Mother” variable. A “Single Mother” is not necessarily raising her child(ren) alone. Her children could be living with her husband or grandparents. She might be living with her children’s father but not married to him. Or she could be living with a new boyfriend who has adopted the children as his own. 11 Given the magnitude of the coefficient on single motherhood and the fact that single mothers make up a large proportion of the sample, one might worry that the effects of sports participation on single mothers are driving our results. Excluding single mothers from the sample and re-running the regressions may appear to be an appropriate test. However, it is econometrically inappropriate to condition on a post-treatment outcome (i.e., single motherhood) when testing treatment effects.

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In a parallel analysis, we estimated that participating in sports causes women to be less likely to be married at the time of interview, but barely missed significance at the 10 percent level (p=.108).

c. Trust

The first three columns in Table 5 capture results from estimations of the relationship between women’s trust of others and high school athletic participation. “Trust” is a binary variable equal to one for women who believe most people can be trusted and zero for women who do not. In the simplest regression in column one, women who participate in sports are significantly less likely to trust others – to the degree of 4.8 percentage points less likely for every 10 percentage point increase in a state’s rate of female athletic participation. However, adding regional time trends causes a drastic drop in the estimate and renders it insignificant, demonstrating that this result may be driven by other region-specific changes, and not athletic participation.

In columns four through six, an indicator for whether a woman associates with the Democratic party (as opposed to the Republican or Independent parties) is regressed on female sports participation. The basic regression reveals that participating in sports makes women more likely to be Democrats. Specifically, a 10-percentage point increase in female sports participation generates a 2.9 percentage point increase in the probability of being a Democrat. However, as with Trust, this relationship is not robust to including regional time trends.

V. Robustness

To be a successful instrumental variable, 1971 male sports participation must be both correlated with 1978 female sports participation and uncorrelated with variables omitted from my regressions that may independently affect women’s religiosity, family decisions, politics, and trust of others. As demonstrated by the significant correlation and high R-squared in Table 1, 1971 male sports participation satisfies this first condition. However, it is more difficult to establish that it satisfies the second. An omitted variable could have caused states to have both high level of male sports participation in 1971 and larger drops in state religiosity following the passage of Title IX.

In order to investigate the possibility of alternative explanations, we run two robustness checks. In the first, we run the same regressions that we did for women, but this time for men. Except for gender, the sample is the same: men aged 30-40 In the GSS who have completed 10th grade and completed high school either before Title IX was passed or after it came into full effect. If the social effects we estimated were really caused by Title IX, they should not exist for men because Title IX applied to women, not men.12 If, on the other hand, they are due to an omitted variable that influenced both 1971 male sports participation and general, gender-neutral social trends, they might appear for men as well as women.

12 This statement is obviously a generalization, as there could be spillovers from Title IX’s effect on women. The point is merely that significant effects on men would be a cause for concern.

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Table 6 compares the results of running male regressions for all six social outcome variables. Race, age, state, year, region, region interacted with year, and education controls are included in all regressions. For men, the coefficients on everything except “Single Parent” are not significant and much smaller than those estimated for women, providing some evidence that an omitted variable is not responsible for the estimated effects of female sports participation on social outcomes. The large, significant relationship estimated between Title IX and single fatherhood is not as concerning as would have been a similar result for religion, trust, or political affiliation. Having a child necessarily entails two people, and the marital status of these two people is highly correlated. If a mother is separated or divorced from her children’s father, their father is also separated and divorced from their mother. Therefore, although it is entirely possible for a mother to remarry while her children’s father remains single, the number of single fathers in a state is likely to be positively correlated with the number of single mothers.

The fact that male social outcomes are unaffected by female sports participation, however, does not eliminate the possibility that an omitted variable is driving female social outcomes, but not male social outcomes. To investigate the existence of such a gender-specific omitted variable, we test the relationship between Title IX and social outcomes for women who entered high school after Title IX was passed but before it came into full effect. Since, by definition, fewer of these women participated in high school athletics, the effect of Title IX on them should be less, if not insignificant. Equally large and significant results for these partially treated women could mean that something other than Title IX Is responsible for changes in social outcomes.

Results for this robustness check are presented in Table 7. As would be expected, the effects of Title IX on social outcomes for partially treated women are of the same sign as for fully treated women, but smaller and not significant, providing evidence in opposition to the theory that something other than Title IX is responsible for the different social outcomes between pre and post-Title IX women. Granted, an omitted variable that lined up not only geographically but also chronologically with Title IX could generate these same results for partially treated women. However, given that partially treated women graduated high school less than six years before fully treated women, such a force would have had to have the unlikely coincidence of a similarly nuanced phase-in.13

Finally, it should be emphasized that any concerns related to self-selection are addressed by our methodology. That is, some might fear that females who joined sports teams after the passage of Title IX had a lower opportunity cost of time or a greater appreciation for exercise than those who did not. Such characteristics may also make these women less likely to be involved in church, in which case the relationship we find between sports participation and secularism would be merely correlation, not causation. Our methodology avoids this possibility by measuring sports participation at the state level,

13 We conducted a third robustness check in which we created a sample of women who reported currently living in a different state than they had lived in at age 16. We then assigned 1971 male and 1978 female sports participation levels to each woman based on the state that they currently live in rather than the state in which they lived in at age 16 (and therefore likely attended high school). As expected, the estimated coefficients from these placebo regressions were insignificant, demonstrating that there is no relationship between Title IX pressures in one state and female outcomes in a different state.

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not the individual level. That is, we look at the impact of being in a class of people with a certain exposure to sports participation rather than the impact of being personally exposed to athletics. As a result, who actually participates is irrelevant.

VI. Conclusion

In summary, we found significant results that are robust to including regional time trends for three of our five social outcome variables: religiosity, motherhood, and single motherhood. In Part II, we outlined four theories that past studies seeking to estimate the effects of sports participation have advanced: the individual development theory, the socialization theory, the limited-time theory, and the no-effect theory. Of these four, the individual development theory is best able to explain our significant, robust results. It is possible that by empowering women and making them more confident and independent, participating in sports appears to lead them to reject potentially patriarchal institutions such as organized religion and marriage. Feeling that they have more control over their lives, former athletes allow history and tradition to have less control. Granted, this hypothesis does explain why sports participation causes women to be more likely to have children.14 Moreover, it is possible that there is another explanation for our results, or that there are separate, unrelated explanations for each of our results. Further research could identify the causal mechanisms through which sports participation causes women to be more likely to be secular, have children, and become single mothers. We merely advance the rejection of potentially patriarchal institutions as one potential organizing hypothesis.

Under the socialization theory, we might have expected sports participation to make women better at forming and maintaining romantic relationships and thus less likely to become single mothers. We also might have expected women to be more likely to get involved in non-athletic group activities and thus more likely to join religious organizations. That we found the opposite results suggests either that participating in athletics does not significantly change women’s approach to society, or, more plausibly, that this impact is outweighed by the larger effect it has on individual’s personal characteristics.

Our finding that sports causes women to be more likely to have children is admittedly difficult to attribute to a particular theory. On the surface, it might appear to contradict the development theory, under which we might expect empowered women to choose career over children. But one could tell a development theory-based story that explains our results: women’s increased social capital makes them more desirable to men, allowing them to more easily attract mates and therefore making it more likely that they will have children.15

Would increasing the level of female sports participation today increase secularism, motherhood, and single motherhood among women fifteen years from now? In 14 Given that women have traditionally had children, one might view giving birth as observing rather than rejecting tradition in opposition to the hypothesis we advance. However, one could also see childbirth, unlike marriage and religiosity, as the product of biological tendencies that are immune to social pressures, in which case our hypothesis is not inconsistent with our motherhood results even if it cannot explain them. 15 It is also possible that there is a biological explanation for why sports participation causes women to be mothers.

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contemplating the implications of our results for public policy, it is important to acknowledge the unique time period in which most of our treatment group attended high school. Seventy-five percent of the group graduated from high school before the end of 1990—merely twelve years after Title IX came into full effect. It is possible that entering sports during this time encouraged women to reject tradition, but that this effect would not be seen today, after the feminist revolution has largely run its course in the United States.16 To test whether our results are merely a product of the time period and thus could not be expected to be replicated through increased sports participation today, researchers could identify a more recent independent shock to sports participation, such as an increase in funding for athletic programs or a judicial ruling that changed the standard for Title IX compliance, and test whether it had the same effect on women’s adult social lives as those estimated in this paper.

In conclusion, our results appear to paint a picture of heightened individuality—a picture that, despite the social nature of high school athletics, should not be wholly unexpected. Although sports, including ones in which students compete individually, are organized around teams, athletic competitions create forums for individual success. It was Brandi Chastain, for example, and not her team, who scored the winning penalty kick in 1999. In fact, Chastain’s reaction provides anecdotal evidence in support of the individual development approach and against the societal one. Rather than running to her team and hugging them in excitement, Chastain’s first move was to drop to the grass, alone, and savor her individual victory. Her reactions is also consistent with our results: in defiance of traditional gender norms and societal expectations, Brandi Chastain took off her shirt, and, to the shock of many, exposed her bra to the world.

16 Even if rebellion is responsible for our results, it is possible that participating in sports could have the effects estimated in this paper on women in developing countries that have not yet fully completed their feminist revolutions.

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References Barber, B.L., Eccles, J.S., and M.R. Stone. 2001. Whatever Happened to the Jock, the Brain, and the Princess?: Yong Adult Pathways Linked to Adolescent Activity Involvement and Social Identity. Journal of Adolescent Research 16(5): 42955. Braddock, J.H., Dawkins, M.P., and L. Hua. 2007. Effects of Participation in High School Sports and Nonsport Extracurricular Activities on Political Engagement among Black Young Adults. The Negro Educational Review 58(3/4): 201-15. Branscombe, N.R. and D.L. Wann. 1991. The Positive Social and Self Concept Consequences of Sports Team Identification. Journal of Sport & Social Issues 15(2): 115-27. Branta, C.F., and J.D. Goodway. 1996. Facilitating Social Skills in Urban School Children Through Physical Education. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 2(4): 305-19. S.W. Brown, M.C. Welsh, E.E. Labre, W.F. Vitulli, and P. Kulkarni. 1992. Aerobic Exercise in the Psychological Treatment of Adolescents. Perceptual and Motor Skills 74(2): 555-60. Coleman, J.S. 1961. The Adolescent Society. New York: Free Press of Glencoe. Cote, J. 2002. Coach and Peer Influence on Children’s Development through Sport, in J.M. Silva & D.E. Stevens, eds., Psychological Foundations of Sport, pp. 520-40. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Eccles, J.S. and B.L. Barber. 1999. Student Council, Volunteering, Basketball, or Marching Band: What Kind of Extracurricular Involvement Matters? Journal of Adolescent Research 14(1): 10-43.

Fejgin, N. 1994. Participation in High School Competitive Sports: A Subversion of School Mission or Contribution to Academic Goals? Sociology of Sport Journal 11(3): 211-30. Hultsman, W. 1996. Benefits of and Deterrents to Recreation Participation: Perspectives of Early Adolescents. Journal of Applied Recreation Research 21(3): 213-41. Larson, Reed W. 2000. Toward a Psychology of Positive Youth Development. American Psychologist 55(1): 170-83. Long, J.E., and S.B. Caudill. 1991. The Impact of Participation in Intercollegiate Athletics on Income and Graduation. The Review of Economics and Statistics 73(3): 525-31.

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Perks, T. 2007. Does Sport Foster Social Capital? The Contribution of Sport to a Lifestyle of Community Participation. Sociology of Sport Journal 24(4): 378-401. Quintelier, E. 2008. Who is Politically Active: The Athlete, the Scout Member or the Environmental Activist? Young People, Voluntary Engagement and Political Participation. Acta Sociologica 51(4): 355-70. Rees, C.R., Howell, F.M., and A.W. Miracle. 1990. Do High School Sports Build Character? A Quasi-Experiment on a National Sample. The Social Science Journal 27(3): 303-15. D. Sabo, K.E. Miller, M.J. Melnick, M.P. Farrell, and G.M. Barnes. 2005. High School Athletic Participation and Adolescent Suicide: A Nationwide US Study. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 40(1): 5-23. Statistics Canada. 2001. National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth: Participation in Activities, 1998/99. Stevenson, Betsey. 2010. Beyond the Classroom: Using Title IX to Measure the Return to High School Sports. The Review of Economics and Statistics 92(2): 284-301.

Figure 1 Source: Stevenson (2010)

Figure 2 Source: Stevenson (2010)

Table 1 Source: Stevenson (2010)

Table 2Summary Statistics

Mean SD

Boys' Athletic Participation 1971 0.570 0.247

Girls' Athletic Participation 1971 0.048 0.050

Boys' Athletic Participation 1978 0.551 0.180

Girls' Athletic Participation 1978 0.286 0.145

Pre-Title IX Cohort

Post-Title IX Cohort

(1973-1994) (1994-2010)

Observations1 2,220 1,860

De Facto Secular - attendance2 28% 37%

De Facto Secular - affiliation3 48% 53%

Mother 84% 77%

Single Mother4 27% 41%

Trust Others 47% 31%

Democrat 43% 37%

4 Percentage reported is of all mothers, not all women.

% women aged 30-40

Source: Data on Sports Participation in the first four rows are from the National Federation of High Schools. Data in the remaining rows are from 1973 - 2010 General Social Surveys (GSS) restricted to women aged 30-40 who completed 10th grade and either graduated high school before Title IX was passed or entered high school after it went into full effect. Data is for 49 states plus the District of Columbia. Iowa is excluded because it did not begin reporting female sports participation until 1981. 1Count is total observations. Observations are missing for some variables in some years.2 De Facto Secular determined based on reported frequency of attendance at religious services. Respondents who reported attending religious services at most once per year receive a value of 1. Respondents who reported attending religious services more than once per year receive a value of 0.3 De Facto Secular determined based on reported strength of religious affiliation. Respondents who reported having no religion or described their religious affiliation as "not very strong" affiliation receive a value of 1. Respondents who described their religious affiliation as "strong" or "somewhat strong" receive a value of 0.

Table 3Instrumental Variable Estimates of the Effects of Sports Participation on Secularlism

De Facto Secular - attendance1 De Facto Secular - affiliation2

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

IV 0.389 ** 0.456 ** 0.492 ** 0.452 ** 0.532 ** 0.557 **Causal Effect of Sports Participationa (.158) (.219) (.216) (.185) (.251) (.248)

Reduced Form Results 0.172 ** 0.167 ** 0.181 ** 0.200 ** 0.195 ** 0.204 **Differential Effects of Title IX on Secularism by Stateb (.072) (.084) (.082) (.083) (.097) (.095)

First-Stage Results 0.443 *** 0.367 *** 0.367 *** 0.442 *** 0.366 *** 0.366 ***Change in Female Sports Participation Generated by Title IXc (.013) (.017) (.017) (.014) (.017) (.017)

Controls (All regressions include a saturated set of dummy variables for state at age 16, year surveyed, age, and race.)Year*Region at 16 No Yes Yes No Yes YesEduc No No Yes No No YesObservations 4,061 4,061 4,061 3,869 3,869 3,869

Specifications (Linear Probability Models):

Standard errors (in parentheses) are clustered at state at age 16 and year of survey. ***, **, and * indicate statistically significance at the 1% 5%, and 10% levels.

1"De Facto Secular - attendance" is determined based on respondents' reported frequency of attendance at religious services. Respondents who reported attending religious services at most once per year receive a value of 1. Respondents who reported attending religious services more than once per year receive a value of 0.

2"De Facto Secular - affiliation" is determined based on respondents' reported strength of religious affiliation. Respondents who reported having no religion or described their religious affiliation as "not very strong" receive a value of 1. Respondents who described their religious affiliation as "strong" or "somewhat strong" receive a value of 0.

Source: General Social Survey, years 1973-2010. Data is restricted to women aged 30-40 who completed 10th grade and either graduated high school before Title IX was passed or entered high school after it went into full effect. Data covers 49 states plus the District of Columbia. Iowa is excluded from the sample because it did not begin reporting female sports participation until 1981. The "De Facto Secular - affiliation" regression has fewer observations because respondents were not asked about the strength of their religious affiliation in 1973.

a IV estimates of causal effects of rising state female sports participation rates:

b Reduced Form Results: Relationship between changing female religiosity and pre-existing levles of boys sports participation:

c First-Stage Regression: Changes in girls sports participation by state generated by the interaction of Title IX and pre-existing levels of boys sports participation:

De Facto Seculari,s,t = α + β Female Athletic ParticipationIVi,s,t + Σ ηsStates + Σ χtYeart + Xi,s,t λ + εi,s,t

De Facto Seculari,s,t = α + β (Post Title IXi * Boys Athletic Participations1971) + Σ ηsStates + Σ χtYeart + Xi,s,t λ + εi,s,t

Female Athletic ParticipationIVi,s,t = α + β (Post Title IXi * Boys Athletic Participations1971) + Σ ηsStates + Σ χtYeart + Xi,s,t λ + εi,s,t

Table 4Instrumental Variable Estimates of the Effects of Sports Participation on Motherhood

Mother1 Single Mother2

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

IV 0.289 ** 0.394 ** 0.476 ** 0.387 ** 0.497 * 0.571 **Causal Effect of Sports Participationa (.134) (.198) (.189) (.183) (.293) (.286)

Reduced Form Results 0.128 ** 0.144 * 0.174 ** 0.172 ** 0.180 0.207 *Differential Effects of Title IX on Motherhood, by Stateb (.059) (.075) (.07) (.082) (.11) 0.1071

First-Stage Results 0.443 *** 0.367 *** 0.367 *** 0.444 *** 0.363 *** 0.102 ***Change in Female Sports Participation Generated by Title IXc (.013) (.016) (.017) (.015) (.018) 0.0184




Source: General Social Survey, years 1973-2010. Data is restricted to women aged 30-40 who completed 10th grade and either graduated high school before Title IX was passed or entered high school after it went into full effect. Data covers 49 states plus the District of Columbia. Iowa is excluded from the sample because it did not begin reporting female sports participation until 1981. The "Single Mother" regression has fewer observations because one respondent did not provide her marital status.1"Mother" is based on respondents' answers to the question, "How many children have you ever had? Please count all that were born alive at any time (including any you had from a previous marriage)?" Respondents who reported having never had any children receive a value of 0. Respondents who reported having had at least one child receive a value of 1.2"Single Mother" is based on respondents' reported number of children and marital status. Respondents who report having had no children are excluded from the sample. Respondents who have at least one child and are either separated, divorced, or have never been married receive a value of 1. Respondents who have at least one child and are either married or widowed receive a value of 0.


a IV estimates of causal effects of rising state female sports participation rates: Motheri,s,t = α + β Female Athletic ParticipationIV

i,s,t + Σ ηsStates + Σ χtYeart + Xi,s,t λ + εi,s,t

b Reduced Form Results: Relationship between changing motherhood and pre-existing levles of boys sports participation: Motheri,s,t = α + β (Post Title IXi * Boys Athletic Participations

1971) + Σ ηsStates + Σ χtYeart + Xi,s,t λ + εi,s,t


Table 5Instrumental Variable Estimates of the Effects of Sports Participation on Trust and Politics

Trusts Others1 Democrat2

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

IV -0.484 ** -0.153 -0.280 0.291 * -0.003 -0.026Causal Effect of Sports Participationa (.215) (.314) (.31) (.177) (.241) (.239)

Reduced Form Results -0.207 ** -0.055 -0.101 0.129 -0.001 -0.010Differential Effects of Title IX on Trust/Politics by Stateb (.092) (.12) (.118) (.079) (.092) (.091)

First-Stage Results 0.429 *** 0.361 *** 0.361 *** 0.443 *** 0.367 *** 0.367 ***Change in Female Sports Participation Generated by Title IXc (.016) (.021) (.021) (.013) (.016) (.017)




Source: General Social Survey, years 1973-2010. Data is restricted to women aged 30-40 who completed 10th grade and either graduated high school before Title IX was passed or entered high school after it went into full effect. Data covers 49 states plus the District of Columbia. Iowa is excluded from the sample because it did not begin reporting female sports participation until 1981. The "Trusts Others" regression has fewer observations because respondents were not asked whether they trusted others in 1974, 1977, 1982, and 1985.1"Trusts Others" is based on respondents' response to the question, "Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can't be too careful in dealing with people?" Respondents who answered "Can Trust" or "It Depends" receive a value of 1. Respondents who answered "Cannot Trust" receive a value of 0. 2"Democrat" is based on respondents' response to the question, "Generally speaking, do you usually think of yourself as a Republican, Democrat, Independent, or what?" Respondents who answered "Democrat" receive a value of 1. Respondents who answered "Republican," "Independent," or "Other Party" receive a value of 0.


a IV estimates of causal effects of rising state female sports participation rates: Trusts Othersi,s,t = α + β Female Athletic ParticipationIV


b Reduced Form Results: Relationship between changing female trust/political affiliation and pre-existing levles of boys sports participation: Trusts Othersi,s,t = α + β (Post Title IXi * Boys Athletic Participations

1971) + Σ ηsStates + Σ χtYeart + Xi,s,t λ + εi,s,t


Table 6The Effect of Title IX On Male Social Outcomes

IV Regressionsa

Women Men

De Facto Secular - Attendance 0.492 ** 0.184

De Facto Secular - Affiliation 0.557 ** 0.252

Parent 0.476 ** -0.005

Single Parent 0.571 ** 0.876 **

Trusts Others -0.280 -0.026

Democrat -0.026 -0.243

Controls All regressions include a saturated set of dummy variables for state at age 16, year surveyed, age, race, education, and year*region at 16 fixed effects.


a IV estimates of causal effects of rising state female sports participation rates: Childlessi,s,t = α + β Female Athletic ParticipationIV


Table 7Effect of Title IX on Women Who Began High School After Title IX was Passed

and Before it Went into Full Effect: Reduced Form Results

Reduced Form Regressionsa

Fully Treated Partially Treated

De Facto Secular - Attendance 0.181 ** 0.058

De Facto Secular - Affiliation 0.204 ** 0.089

Mother 0.174 * 0.031

Single Mother 0.207 ** 0.058

Trusts Others -0.101 -0.003

Democrat -0.010 -0.002

When running the "Fully Treated" regressions, Cohort is 1 for individuals who began high school after Title IX went into full effect and 0 for individuals who graduated before it was passed. When running the "Partially Treated" regressions, Cohort equals one for individuals who began high school after Ttile IX was passed but before it went into full effect and 0 for individuals who graduated before it was passed.

Reduced Form Results: Relationship between changing female religiosity and pre-existing levles of boys sports participation:

aMotheri,s,t = α + β (Cohorti * Boys Athletic Participations1971) + Σ ηsStates + Σ χtYeart + Xi,s,t λ + εi,s,t


Controls (All regressions include a saturated set of dummy variables for state at age 16, year surveyed, age, race, education, and year*region at 16 fixed effects.

the chastain effect

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