--- title: Parents Worried About Injuries in Youth Sports, Survey Says description: A new poll says parents think youth sports are overly competitive and risky canonical: https://time.com/3502999/youth-sports-injuries-concussion/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-13T20:36:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:09.348Z og:title: Parents Worried About Injuries in Youth Sports, Survey Says og:description: A new poll says parents think youth sports are overly competitive and risky og:url: https://time.com/3502999/youth-sports-injuries-concussion/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltedbcac271e9b6b23/69876091cd1bba58506f29c5/youth-football.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3872 og:image:height: 2178 og:image:alt: Youth Football Kids Sports og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Parents Worried About Injuries in Youth Sports, Survey Says twitter:description: A new poll says parents think youth sports are overly competitive and risky twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltedbcac271e9b6b23/69876091cd1bba58506f29c5/youth-football.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Parents Deeply Concerned About Injuries in Youth Sports, Survey Finds > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Oct 13, 2014 8:36 PM UTC  Young quarter back throwing a pass. Young quarter back throwing a pass. Getty Images  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Oct 13, 2014 8:36 PM UTC Youth sports are becoming increasingly competitive, and most parents believe children are suffering. According to a [new national poll](http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2014/10/most-parents-have-big-concern-with-quality-and-behavior-of-youth-coaches/) released by the espnW: Women + Sports Summit this weekend, two-thirds of parents think there is “too much emphasis on winning over having fun,” and 87% of parents said they were worried about the risk of injury in sports. Parents are most concerned about concussions on the high school football field, which increasingly have been in the headlines lately (including on TIME’s [cover](http://time.com/3394893/football-brain-injury-chad-stover/)). Just in the past week, [three high school football players](http://time.com/3455884/high-school-football-death/) in Alabama, North Carolina and New York have died, possibly due to football injuries. Parental concerns could explain the drop in participation in youth sports in the last several years. In 2008, 44.5% of children ages 6-12 participated in some type of sports organization. Only 40% of children did so in 2013, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. Football, basketball, baseball and soccer have all seen double-digit declines in participation (though lacrosse and hockey have not). The Aspen Institute’s Sports and Society Program and ESPN polled 1,511 Americans with data weighted by age, gender, race and income to match the overall characteristics of Americans. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3502999/youth-sports-injuries-concussion/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3502999/youth-sports-injuries-concussion/"},"headline":"Parents Deeply Concerned About Injuries in Youth Sports, Survey Finds","datePublished":"2014-10-13T20:36:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:09.348Z","description":"87% of parents said they were worried about the risk of injury in sports, as participation rates fall","url":"https://time.com/3502999/youth-sports-injuries-concussion/","keywords":["Living","Parenting"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltedbcac271e9b6b23/69876091cd1bba58506f29c5/youth-football.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltedbcac271e9b6b23/69876091cd1bba58506f29c5/youth-football.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Youth Football Kids Sports","caption":"Youth Football Kids Sports","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3502999/youth-sports-injuries-concussion/","name":"Parents Deeply Concerned About Injuries in Youth Sports, Survey Finds"}}]}] ```