Rachel Lader serves as a legal intern at Hach & Rose, LLP. She is concurrently finishing her law degree at New York Law School. As a teenager, Rachel Lader played on a nationally ranked soccer team and traveled to different states to play soccer.
In 2017, a collaborative study conducted by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the University of Birmingham investigated the impact of soccer on the emotional and psychological condition of European girls and young women. The research primarily emphasizes the sport’s effect on the girls’ self-confidence, self-esteem, and overall well-being.
The study also compared its results with results from other sports. More than 4,000 girls from Germany, England, Denmark, Poland, Spain, and Turkey were enrolled in the research.
The study found that 80 percent of the girls had more confidence when they were playing on a soccer team, while 74 percent of the girls had more confidence when they were playing other sports. More than 50 percent of the participants also agreed that they were less concerned with others’ opinions of them when they were playing soccer, while this was true for 41 percent of the girls who played other sports.
UEFA hopes these figures will help change the public perception of girls playing soccer.
