Does this Skateparks Make Me Look Fat?

I am not making this up. A new study by the nonprofit Rand Corporation finds that girls who live near parks with active facilities like jogging paths, basketball courts, and playgrounds are more likely to be physically active. (Duh!) Sounds good right? Except, Skateboard areas and special-use parks were negatively associated with physical activity in adolescent girls.

If you don’t want to wade through the actual egg-headed report, Erik Bergrud has distilled it:

The study also found that parks with “active amenities” such as basketball courts, playgrounds and walking paths were associated with more physical activity than parks with “passive amenities,” such as picnic areas and lawn games. Girls were less active if the nearby parks had skateboarding facilities, which Cohen attributed to skateboarding being more popular with males than females.

“Boys are using them, and girls stay away,” Cohen said. “The implications are that while special facilities are good, they may benefit one group to the exclusion of another.”

The study suggests that communities should make parks a higher priority, particularly ones with amenities like running tracks or walking paths, which also are relatively inexpensive to create.

We, uhm, love adolescent girls in a completely appropriate way. We blame Teen Vogue, (see pic at top) which teaches girls that skateparks are just a place to hang out and pick up guys. Except for Alexis Schempp, whom we are still waiting to hear from.