When Kids Hitting Each Other Is Okay: Examining U.S. Adult Support for Youth Tackle Football

Abstract

Football plays a prominent role in American culture. Yet, youth tackle football has become particularly controversial because of the mixture of benefits and health risks that it offers. Using National Sports and Society Survey (N = 3993) data, this study analyzes public opinion about the appropriateness of children playing tackle football. In the process, we examine how adults’ social structural locations, traditionalist ideologies and group affiliations, and sport-related values and contexts, including football-related interactions and experiences, are associated with beliefs about the appropriateness of youth tackle football. We find that the issue is quite contested. Several prominent social structural locations (e.g., identifying as male, heterosexual) and traditionalist ideologies and group affiliations encourage support for football. Support is also elevated among those (e.g., non-White, poorer, and less educated adults) who may be most apt to view football as a means for social mobility and as relatively meritocratic. Finally, beliefs in the value of sport and immersions within football cultures and interactions seem to enhance support for children playing tackle football. Overall, our results indicate that there is substantial disagreement about the appropriateness of youth tackle football and that social forces are important in justifying and problematizing the (re)construction of it.