Study: 92 percent of parents believe benefits of sport outweigh risks

By Joe Frollo | Posted 8/28/2015

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:

  • More than 80 percent of parents would never prohibit their children from playing a contact sport.
  • Keeping fit (93 percent) is the No. 1 benefit parents ascribe to sports, followed by social skills (90 percent), mental skills (89 percent) and teamwork (88 percent).
  • Two-thirds of parents also believe that playing sports help children make better decisions in life.

This study mirrors the results of a 2013 HBO Real Sports-Marist College Institute of Public Opinion study, which reported:

  • 85 percent of more than 1,200 American adults responding said they would allow their sons to play football if the child asked. That number rose to 87 percent for parents of children age 18 or younger.
  • 70 percent believe the benefits of playing football outweigh the risk of injury (73 percent for parents of children ages 18 and younger)
  • 74 percent said boys should be encouraged to play football as a way to build character.
  • 79 percent said the growing information about the possibility of long-term brain injury as the result of concussions either hasn’t changed their level of concern or makes them less concerned because coaches, players and parents are more informed than ever before

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. 

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