The TAAG Study

The Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls (TAAG) is a national research study focusing on physical activity of middle school girls. Your school is an integral part of this trial, which is designed to test the effectiveness of a coordinated school- and community-based intervention. TAAG's goal is to reverse the current decline in physical activity when girls reach middle school age.

The following six universities serve as field centers, each with six partnering middle schools:

• San Diego State University, San Diego
• Tulane University, New Orleans
• University of Arizona, Tucson
• University of Maryland, College Park
• University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
• University of South Carolina, Columbia

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill serves as the coordinating center.

TAAG is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

TAAG fosters school and community environments that encourage and support the full involvement of girls in every aspect of physical activity including physical education (PE), recreation, leisure time activities and sports by:

• Developing opportunities for peers, family, school members and the community to encourage, support, and facilitate girls engaging in physical activity
• Creating and adapting programs and activities to help girls develop the physical, behavioral, and communication skills necessary to choose to be active
• Creating and adapting physical education programs that maximize engagement in activities that build skills toward life-long physical activity
• Helping girls to gain confidence as they become active, strong, and physically fit
• Helping each student to recognize how physical activity leads to a lifetime benefit of improved health by reducing the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and type II diabetes
• Helping students to recognize their own physical activity interests and abilities and how to incorporate them into their daily lives