Athletes Should be Regarded as Role Models for Children. Here’s Why.

By Jaenedy Alcantara

Athlete's should be held to a higher standard.

Children should be supervised by their parents when watching anything. In spite of that, the way children act is because of who they watch in person and on screen. So yes, athletes should be regarded as role models for children.

Here’s why.

There was a survey done by Christina Gough, a research expert from statista.com, asking how many parents watch sports with their children. The percentage is 40% in the United States. That’s almost half the population in the United States, let alone the world. There are 329.5 million people In the U.S. so that would be around 131.8 million people and their children watching sports and could possibly be looking up to their favorite athlete and viewing them as a role model. That’s a lot of adolescents, don’t you think?

Drug trafficking, first degree murder, domestic violence and sexual assault.

These are all instances where athletes, people who fans looked up to, committed such horrid crimes. These exact athletes are being watched by children who might copy what they do. So then they go on to think it’s okay because their role model did it. Athletes also hold a great effect on our communities. Stated in an article published by Sports Rec, “those that looked to athletes were more likely to make positive health decisions.” If athletes are making positive effects on adolescents, they can also make negative effects.

Children are heavily influenced by what they see, as we all know. 65% of younger children copy what they see on tv as well as in person. That’s more than half. According to Michigan State University

Do you remember when you said a swear in front of a child and they repeated it? You begged them not to repeat it in front of their parents but they repeated it anyway. This is the exact same thing but with athletes and sports. Children often get their confidence and work ethic from watching athletes and becoming one themselves. It would only make sense if we were to hold athletes to a higher standard.

Yes, parents should be watching their children, but everyone has a role model.

So, in correlation to what I've said above, athletes should most definitely be regarded as role models for children. What do you think? What’s your opinion?