The Protection Paradox: Why Overprotective Parents May be Doing More Harm Than Good
When the doorbell rings at your house, is it a UPS delivery or neighborhood kids calling on their friends to come outside and play? According to a recent Canadian report, it's most likely a delivery from Amazon.
The 2015 ParticipACTION Report Card of Physical Activity for Children and Youth takes a landmark position on active outdoor play revealing that kids are not playing enough outside, and when they do play outside they tend to be over-supervised by over-protective parents.
I'm sure it's no surprise that outdoor play is healthy for kids. But wanting our kids to be safe outdoors, parents may over-supervise their outdoor play, or worse -- keep them indoors. According to this report, this limits kids' opportunities for physical activity, sets them up to be less resilient and negatively affects their long-term health. This is called the protection paradox.
According to the Report Card, with less than 10 percent of children and youth getting the 60 minutes of heart-pumping activity they need each day, we need to let kids go outside and simply be kids. Kids are more physically active when they play outside and have some freedom to wander unsupervised, independently test their abilities and take some risks. And figuring out how to solve conflicts with their friends, without parents and teachers constantly intervening, should be a requirement.
I'm sure we all agree our children's safety is of the highest importance. But the report also argues that many of us have taken our kids' safety too far. A common belief is that children are safer sitting on the couch and watching television and playing video games than actively playing outside.
In fact, many parents cite safety as a main reason for restricting the independent outdoor play of their children. According to the Department of Transportation, the percentage of elementary and middle schoolers who either walked or biked to school dropped from 48 to 13 percent between 1969 and 2009.
Not surprisingly, children whose parents perceive their neighborhoods as unsafe watch more television and participate in less physical activity. However, according to statistics cited in the ParticipACTION Report Card, the odds of total stranger abduction are about 1 in 14 million.
The solution is obvious, although difficult for many of today's over-protective parents to deliver. It consists of simply standing back, exposing children and youth to more independent outdoor play and letting kids be kids.
Our youth need more active outdoor play, such as exploring the woods, climbing fences and playing neighborhood manhunt games -- all with less adult supervision. And a few scrapes, dumps and bruises may be a good start. Let's not make outdoor play extinct.
Heather A. Hausenblas, PhD, is a faculty member in the Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences at Jacksonville University. She is an internationally renowned physical activity and healthy aging expert, researcher and author. She is an award-winning researcher, an author and a regular contributor to both local and national media outlets. Her research focuses on the psychological effects of health behaviors across the lifespan. Dr. Hausenblas is the co-author of five scientific books, and she has published more than 90 scientific journal articles. Her most recent book is titled "The Truth about Exercise Addiction: Understanding the Dark side of Thinsperation." She is a mom to three young boys, and she enjoys exercising outdoors, spending time with family and friends, and coaching and watching her sons play sports. She resides in Jacksonville, Florida, with her husband and boys.
