Report shows concussion danger for teen female soccer players

CONNECTICUT - When it comes to concussions in sports, much of our focus is on men and football. But new research is shedding light on girls and soccer.

A recent study published in the journal Pediatrics found that young girls are nearly at the same risk for traumatic brain injuries as boys who play football. 

“Girls concuss at twice the rate of boys in these match sports so, basketball, soccer and we’re spending too much time focusing on the boys,” said Jason Bouton, Head Athletic Trainer at King School and a concussion researcher.

Bouton began researching concussions in young athletes in 2017, looking at 365 high school athletes both male and female. He found that not only are girls who play soccer more prone to suffer a concussion than boys, but that they take longer to recover.

“When it comes to whether they minimize their symptoms to return to the classroom faster, 30 percent of the females said that they did so as opposed to nineteen percent of the males, but at the same time they are still taking longer to get back to the classroom,” Bouton said. 

According to Bouton, there are many factors creating the discrepancy, including brain structure, hormone levels, and eve the lack of upper-body and neck strength. He also found that there is a significant difference when you compare the number of concussions both male and female athletes suffer in public vs. private schools.