Increasingly, children are returning to sports as life in the U.S. reopens from the COVID-19 pandemic. But which kids play more often once again is being determined by money, according to a new survey by the Aspen Institute and Utah State University.
Parents who earn $100,000 or more annually reported the highest sports participation rates for their children despite saying they also have the most COVID-19 restrictions preventing play. On average, these children played 14.8 hours a week through pickup games/free play, virtual training, practices and competition, compared to 11.5 hours for kids in homes earning under $50,000 and 10.4 hours in homes making $50,000-$99,999.
That gap has grown during the pandemic. In the Institute’s June 2020 survey, parents in households of $100,000 or more said their children played sports 13.7 hours per week before COVID-19, nearly identical to parents making $50,000-$99,999 homes (13.0 hours) and parents earning under $50,000 (13.4 hours).
Download and read the full survey results here.
In April 2021, parents from the wealthiest households were twice as likely as all other families to report spending “substantially more” money and time on youth sports now than prior to COVID-19. “Throughout the pandemic, children from more affluent families have been least affected in terms of hours spent participating in youth sport,” said Dr. Travis Dorsch, co-director of the study and founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University. “And as restrictions have eased, these same children have returned to play the quickest, and with the most intensity.”
Yet 32% of the wealthiest parents said their child’s lack of interest in sports is a barrier to return – a higher rate than families who make $50,000-$99,999 (21%) and under $50,000 (20%). “Our data suggest that some wealthier families have children who may want a less intense and more enjoyable sports experience than what they had before COVID-19,” Dorsch said. “The kids have more sense, perhaps, than the parents in this return-to-play landscape.”
The nationally representative survey was conducted April 5-14 with 1,263 parents from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Respondents consisted of parents with children ages 6-18 who regularly participated in one or more sports before the pandemic. At the time of the survey, which occurred before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted mask requirements for vaccinated Americans, 88% of parents reported full or partial restrictions on their child’s sports participation.
Children in urban areas are back playing sports more than kids in rural and suburban communities. This is happening even though urban parents identified as having the highest rates of full COVID-19 restrictions limiting participation (39%) and children having lost interest in sports (twice the rate of suburban and rural parents). Also, more urban parents (35%) said a team doesn’t exist for their child than suburban (16%) and rural (12%) parents.
Yet urban children played far more hours of organized and unstructured sports (14.5 per week) than suburban and rural kids (10 hours per week for each). Urban parents expressed the most comfort with their child participating in sports. In addition, Black children resumed playing sports at a higher level relative to their pre-pandemic participation (22%) than White (7%) or Hispanic (15%) youth, though a higher percentage of White students played high school sports than Black teens.
Urban parents expressed the most comfort with their child participating in sports. There’s a need. In a separate TeamSnap survey of its users conducted by Utah State and Louisiana Tech University’s Minds in Motion Lab, more urban parents than suburban and rural parents said their child’s mental health and physical fitness has “decreased greatly.” The Aspen Institute served as an advisor for the TeamSnap survey.
Feelings expressed by urban parents highlight the nuance associated with returning to sports from COVID-19, said Dr. Jordan Blazo, assistant professor of kinesiology at Louisiana Tech University, who assisted on the research. “Urban families reported significantly more time on free play, virtual training and competitions,” he said. “While urban families may report less interest by their child in sport, this could be driven by new interests and more time spent on backyard or neighborhood games.”
This was the fourth survey the Aspen Institute conducted of youth sports parents’ experiences during COVID-19. Previous research studied trends in May, June and September 2020. Other findings from the April parent survey results are below.
Sport participation levels have nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels: The number of hours parents reported their children playing sports increased in April 2021, almost double from previous surveys in June and September 2020. Twice as many hours were spent in April on competitions than seven months earlier.
Girls have been impacted more than boys: Male athletes participated in more hours of sports per week (14.2) than females (10.3). Almost half of parents of girls (49%) said their child is playing sports less, higher than parents of boys (36%). Also, parents of boys reported spending more money on youth sports than parents of females, compared to pre-pandemic levels. “These findings are a little disheartening and indicate that the pandemic may have opened some old gender equality wounds in youth sport,” Dorsch said. “Prior to the pandemic, our data suggested that girls, for the first time, had actually surpassed boys in the time and money spent in youth sports. But data collected during the pandemic suggest parents of boys may still value sport for boys more than girls.”
Virtual training appears here to stay: Even as in-person sports returned, the number of hours children spent on online and app-based training continued to increase. “It’s interesting when this data is contrasted with the general narrative surrounding virtual/remote classrooms,” Blazo said. “The narrative has seemed polarized – some supportive, others vehemently against remote learning and suggesting it’s done harm. But our data suggest virtual training has carved out a niche or found a way to meet the needs of youth families in creative and engaging ways.”
The most vulnerable are the least protected: Parents of kids ages 6-10 reported the highest rate of full COVID-19 restrictions to play sports, while parents of youth ages 15-18 had the fewest restrictions. This contradicted COVID-19 transmission data showing that, while the vast majority of kids do not get seriously ill if they contract the virus, adolescents are more vulnerable than young children.
Parents have gotten more comfortable with their child playing sports during COVID-19: For the first time in the Aspen Institute’s surveys during the pandemic, less than half of parents expressed fears that they or their child would get sick through sports participation. In September 2020, six of 10 parents were worried.
Government leadership matters: Parents said federal and state COVID-19 protocols are the most important factors that would allow them to feel comfortable for their child to resume sports, more than local and league/team protocols. Vaccines for children and parents ranked lowest on this list. Rural parents rated vaccinations for parents less important to their child reengaging in sports than urban and suburban parents. Widespread eligibility for vaccines in the U.S. was only beginning to open when the survey was fielded.
New health and safety concerns have emerged: Among parents whose children still face sports participation restrictions, 40% said they are “very concerned” with how quickly training and games are ramped up after such a long layoff from physical activity. Parents with no sports restrictions (17%) expressed less concern about the layoff. Anecdotally, doctors around the country are reporting increased sports injuries among children in recent months, citing the quick return to intense training as a major reason.
Attrition rates due to loss of interest remain high: Almost one in four parents (24%) agreed their child is no longer interested in organized sports participation. While that’s down from 29% in September 2020, it’s still higher than June 2020 (19%). In the most recent survey, more kids ages 6-10 (28%) lost interest in playing sports than ages 11-14 (24%) and ages 15-18 (20%), according to their parents. “In a world where many sectors are engaging effortfully to get more kids playing, and deeper into adolescence, this is a bad sign,” Dorsch said. “If these kids choose not to return post-pandemic, I wonder what we’ll be looking at five to 10 years from now."
Thumbs are getting the most exercise: Half of youth sports parents said their child often or sometimes participated in esports or other organized video gaming in the past month. That rate was even higher (66%) among parents who said their child had been inactive for a month. In the separate TeamSnap survey, 82% of parents said their child’s screen time “increased greatly” since the pandemic started, while organized sports (69%) and free play (59%) “decreased greatly” since March 2020. The TeamSnap survey was conducted mostly with parents from medium- and high-income households who live in both the U.S. and Canada.
Highly organized team sports remain the least preferred format: Parents’ comfort level regarding where their children play sports has basically stayed the same during COVID-19. In April, the least comfortable setting continued to be travel/club sports. Children from families earning $100,000 or more participated in travel/club sports (16%) at a higher rate than less-affluent households (9%-12%). Just 12% of surveyed parents said their child played travel/club sports in the past month, compared to 55% of parents who reported their child engaged in free play.
All sports are seeing upticks in participation and engagement: Every sport identified in the chart above experienced higher hours of play per week by children from the April 2021 survey compared to September 2020. Some of this difference may be attributable to the seasonality of when certain sports are played, but significant increases in hours of participation are apparent across all sports.
Individual sports have benefitted the most: Of the top nine sports and activities in which parents said their child has “regularly participated” during the pandemic, four are individual activities (bicycling, gymnastics, swimming and tennis). Many individual sports and activities have enjoyed the benefit of playing outdoors with social distancing.
There are worrying signs for baseball: One-third of parents whose child played baseball regularly prior to the pandemic said their child is no longer interested in playing the game. Given the chance to step away from one of the more organized, adult-led sports at the youth level, many appear to be doing so. Ice hockey could face a similar challenge, especially with the long layoff due to COVID restrictions. Only 1% of surveyed parents listed ice hockey as their child’s primary sport, trailing sports like wrestling and skateboarding. Parents of children who regularly play ice hockey reported the fewest hours spent in both April 2021 and September 2020.
Tennis hits a winner: More parents said their child has “regularly participated” in tennis (14%) during COVID-19 than tackle football (13%) and volleyball (12%) – traditionally, two of the most popular sports. Another positive sign for sport sampling: On average, children have tried 1.3 new sports or recreational activities during the pandemic.
Do you have a topic that you would like Project Play to explore in future COVID-19 youth sports coverage? Email Jon Solomon at jon.solomon@aspeninstitute.org.