Why Should We Care About Skateboarding: Analyzing Data on Skateboarding
Why should we care about skateboarding?
We’ve all heard that exercise is good for us physically but in 2023 we now have heaps of data showing that it’s also beneficial for us mentally and emotionally. One of the main issues we have identified is that many youth aren’t being offered sports or physical activities that they engage and connect with, and so we see participation levels that are lower than ideal. The Aspen institute recently released some extremely helpful data (Aspen Institute 2021 National Survey) analyzing participation in sports and other physical activities amongst youth. Skateboarding was found to be one of the top 3 most popular physical activities amongst all students, and yet it’s often not invested in at any of the public parks, school grounds or physical education programming. Let’s look at the data.
Reasons Why Students Are Not Participating in High School Sports (Aspen Institute 2021 National Survey):
Schoolwork 42%
Not enjoying sports 32%
Not having sports that are of interest 26%
I don’t think I’m good enough 25%
If a few of the main hurdles of getting students to be active is that they are “not enjoying sports (32%)” or “don’t have any sports of interest (26%), then what can we do? In Figure 18 of the report (Aspen Institute 2021 National Survey), we get some encouraging information on what physical activities students are actually interested in participating in. This portion looks at the types of physical activities that the students are most interested in by school type (Public, Private and Charter), as well as urbanicity (Urban, Suburban, and Rural), gender and race, and grade level. Check out the data below:
Top 3 commonly reported physical activities of interest to high school youth:
Strength training (35%)
Biking (24%)
Skateboarding (21%)
Accessibility and Affordability
What we learned in another recent study (Aspen Institute/Utah State University 2019 National Youth Sports Survey) is that skateboarding is the third least expensive sport out of 21 of the most popular sports. This data confirms that skating stands out as a highly enjoyable, intersectional and affordable sport compared to many traditional ones. Unlike most traditional sports that require expensive equipment, coaches, buses, specialized facilities, or organized team participation, skateboarding can be practiced with something as simple as skateboard and a flat surface in a park, sidewalk or street, making it fun and accessible to all people from diverse backgrounds and income levels.
Health and Wellness
The more we look into the data (Aspen Institute/Utah State University 2019 National Youth Sports Survey) the more positive benefits we see when compared to other sports or physical activities. That data shows that skateboarding has a very high level of enjoyment, measured with various metrics when compared side by side with other sports and physical activities. We can also observe that skateboarders report much lower levels of stress from parents, siblings, peers, etc when compared to the other sports and physical activities.
Summary
When we pull all this data together we begin to see why we should care about skateboarding. Many youth aren’t enjoying the sports available to them, or they aren’t being offered the activities in parks or schools that interest them! Because of this, we see a large percentage of kids not participating in physical activities. This is an issue as we know that movement is extremely beneficial for mental, physical and emotional health. When we look at the activities that kids report are most attractive to them, skateboarding is one of the top 3 activities, making it more popular than most traditional school hobbies or sports, while also being more affordable as well. Lastly, skateboarding allows for all genders, identities, ages and body types to be able to participate together in a community that is low stress, welcoming and inclusive.
Studies & Data
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Aspen-National-Student-Survey-FINAL-Report.pdf
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/FINAL-Utah-State-Parent-Survey-Report-1.pdf