Parental Decisions on Return to Youth Sport During a Global Pandemic: Examining Parental Decisions by Race, Gender, and Socio-Economic Status

ABSTRACT

The onset of COVID-19 altered the way parents make decisions on safe activities for their children. Given the impact of this global pandemic, it is important to consider what decisions parents make when faced with the obstacle of keeping a child safe while letting them pursue extracurricular activities, such as sports. To this end, we examine decision-making of parents regarding whether or not they are comfortable allowing their children to participate in sport activities. For this purpose, we conducted two waves of surveys with youth sport parents in spring 2020 and fall 2020. The findings suggest that Black parents and female parents were more comfortable allowing their children to participate and that, in general, parents became more comfortable with local youth sport participation as the pandemic continued.