A recent study commissioned by World Rugby revealed that parents overwhelmingly believe the benefits of sport outweigh the chance of injury.
Of the individuals surveyed throughout Europe and Australia, 92 percent said that the exercise and good habits developed through sport far outweigh the risks.
“Against a backdrop of rising youth inactivity levels, being physically literate – which means to develop a lifelong love of physical activity – is crucial,” according to a report on VirginiaActive.com, which was cited in the World Rugby study. “The first 10 years of childhood are some of the most important in creating active habits for life.”
The study also showed:
This study mirrors the results of a 2013 HBO Real Sports-Marist College Institute of Public Opinion study, which reported:
Through its Heads Up Football program, USA Football educates more youth and high school coaches than any organization in the United States. CDC-approved concussion recognition and response training is included in USA Football’s Level 1 online certification course and is free to everyone at the USA Football website.
Pulling children out of sports because of fear of injury is “more harmful to kids long-term than a concussion,” New York University Langone Medical Center’s Director of Neurophysiology Dr. William Barr told CBS in 2014.
Dr. Marc DiFazio, a child neurologist at the Children’s National Medical Center in Rockville, Md., also told CBS in that report that there’s no definitive evidence that a concussion causes long-term damage and doctors say the risk to kids from inactivity is greater than the risk of harm from concussions.
“It is worth noting that almost no sport is free of a concussion hazard, and that participating in sports has ‘cognitive, physical, emotional and social benefits that outweigh everything,’” Jane Brody wrote in the New York Times this week, quoting Steven P. Broglio, director of the Neurotraumma Research Lab at the University of Michigan.