Do school PE kit policies impact girls’ body image?

The physical activity levels and self-esteem of girls decline with age. This is because adolescent girls can be dissatisfied with how their bodies look and feel, especially when doing sport and physical activity.

UK government guidance encourages schools to engage with their pupils and parents to develop school uniform policies, including the kit used for physical education (PE). This is because wearing ill-fitting and uncomfortable PE kit can be a barrier to engaging with PE in schools.

However, we don’t have enough evidence to confirm whether designing PE kits would be feasible in schools. There is also limited evidence exploring what young people think about their PE kit and how their school PE kit policy may impact how they feel about their bodies, how much they enjoy PE and whether they take part in it.

Project aims

During this project we want to:

• explore the impact of school PE kit policies on
  • body image in secondary school girls
  • participation in PE lessons
  • enjoyment of PE lessons
• examine any differences by ethnicity or religious beliefs
• explore the feasibility and acceptability of co-designing new school PE kits policies with adolescent girls and school staff

What we hope to achieve

We hope that findings from this study will help inform an evidence-based approach to changing and improving PE kit policies in schools. The long-term goal of this area of work is to improve the mental health, body image, and physical activity of adolescent girls.

This research is a collaboration between the Bristol BRC’s diet and physical activity and mental health themes.