SPRING Forward

Educating teen athletes about body confidence and nutrition is extremely important.  We know that many female athletes have begun patterns of disordered eating well before the time they are adults.  Some athletes experience relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S). Disordered eating and RED-S are issues in the general population, but they disportionately influence female athletes. However, the prevalence of such conditions has been shown to be decreased with intervention and education. There are a few different programs that have been implemented in the past in order to help address the issues of disordered eating and RED-S (or Female Athlete Triad at the time), however, most programs were aimed at the collegiate level. We are incredibly thankful for the previous programs, such as The Body Project and The Female Athlete Body Project and have learned from their research. 

When participants voluntarily critique the societal pressure to be thin through the activities of the program, they become aware of an inconsistency between their actions and their critiques. This causes them to change their behavior and leads to a reduction of body dissatisfaction, unhealthy dieting, and eating disorders. High school female athletes are often beginning to become more serious in their sports and are also vulnerable to body issue problems as their bodies are changing and they are feeling societal pressures.  SPRING Forward Girls has a goal of reducing disordered eating, educating about RED-S, and increasing body positivity in high school female athletes both now and in the future.