America’s Most Divided Sport: Polarization and Inequality in Attitudes about Youth Football
- 2 November 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Social Problems
- Vol. 70 (4), 893-913
- https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spab070
Abstract
Football may be America's most popular sport, but with growing evidence of the risk of sport-associated concussions, some adults are reconsidering which sports to encourage children to play. Using data from a nationally representative sample of 958 respondents, we examine how political party, belief in patriotic displays in sport, attention to concussion news, social class, and race are associated with support for children playing each of the five major U.S. sports: baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, and football. Our findings suggest that unlike other sports, attitudes about youth participation in football are divided by views on patriotism in sport, age, race, education, and attention to concussion news. For many Americans, football is connected to participation in a civil religion, which celebrates national pride and respect for the military. We argue that child safety advocates who aim to steer children away from football must grapple with the deeper cultural and identity-based framework associated with the sport.Keywords
This publication has 48 references indexed in Scilit:
- Globalization, Culture Wars, and Attitudes Toward Soccer in America: An Empirical Assessment of How Soccer Explains the WorldThe Sociological Quarterly, 2012
- A Quantitative Assessment of Lareau’s Qualitative Conclusions About Class, Race, and ParentingJournal of Family Issues, 2010
- Fox Sports, Super Bowl XLII, and the Affirmation of American Civil ReligionJournal of Sport and Social Issues, 2008
- Capital, Consumption, Communication, and Citizenship: The Social Positioning of Taste and Civic Culture in the United StatesThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2007
- Managing the Risk of Injury in SportClinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 2007
- Introduction: Muscular Christianity after 150 yearsThe International Journal of the History of Sport, 2006
- Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of CricketAmerican Sociological Review, 2005
- The Study of Boundaries in the Social SciencesAnnual Review of Sociology, 2002
- "Anything But Heavy Metal": Symbolic Exclusion and Musical DislikesAmerican Sociological Review, 1996
- BOYHOOD, ORGANIZED SPORTS, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINITIESJournal of Contemporary Ethnography, 1990