WOMEN, SPORTS, AND SCIENCE - DO FEMALE ATHLETES HAVE AN ADVANTAGE

Both functionalist and conflict theories of sports suggest that partic ipation in sports may have a positive influence on achievement in scie nce, especially for young women. The research presented here found Mat young women's involvement in high school sports often has a strong an d positive association with their success in science in their sophomor e and senior years of high school, but that participation in cheerlead ing is usually negatively associated with success in science. It also found that involvement in sports is a factor in young African American women's success in science, but riot always a positive factor. Compar able analyses for young men showed that sports activities are much les s important in predicting their science experiences and that when thes e activities are significant, they have a negative influence.