Children experience behavioral changes after COVID-19 takes away youth sports

When COVID-19 hit the United States one year ago, the government and youth sports leagues felt they had no choice but to shut down youth sports. Kids put their equipment into the garage, not yet knowing that is where it would remain for the next several months.

Youth sports was just one of many things canceled around the country during the pandemic. But halting them had serious consequences.

These youth teams serve a purpose beyond entertainment and exercise. It’s a purpose only understood after they’re taken away. Children lost more than just the place to get out their energy and keep them occupied in their free time.

Research shows playing sports cultivates more than health

Experts say youth sports create scenarios and environments where children can be exposed to different life skills beyond the classroom and their home. For the first time, children are meeting other kids from beyond their immediate school and neighborhood. Teamwork and cooperation take priority over learning new material, unlike at school. Psychologist Robert S. Griffin found that in a youth sports environment, children learn how to handle new emotions and feelings like respect, frustration and pride alongside their teammates while working towards a common goal of playing a team sport.

“Young kids might have leagues and things like that,” said Suzanne Hudd, co-director of sociology at Quinnipiac University and author of 2019 book “The Athlete’s Covenant: The Moral Transformation of Team Players.”

“Now, all they have left is school, and school is distant for them,” added Hudd. “It’s going to be very hard for them to make the connections they need.”

In her book, Hudd explores “why it is that most people feel their sports give them character.” She used Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development as the groundwork for examining the relationship between sports and character development.

“The idea is that as a child matures, their initial reaction or moral prompts are to satisfy urges, and then they get to rewards… ultimately, they can look outside of themselves and look at the broader implications,” said Hudd.

A 2011 “Psychology of Sport and Exercise” study on the benefits and challenges associated with sports participation went even further to identify the different experiences and emotions playing sports evokes in families. The study found that “sport participation has been correlated with numerous positive developmental indicators, including improved self-esteem, emotional regulation, problem-solving, goal attainment, social skills, and academic performance.”

Sports at the youth levels have been studied through health sciences, psychology and sociology long enough to show that youth sports serve many important purposes in a child’s life, says Stanford Children’s Health.

“I’ve listened to athletes tell their story,” Hudd said. “They found camaraderie, they found approval. Kids who are struggling in other ways found a team that they could join and be a part of. Sports gives people a real sense of connectedness.”

The absence of sports is felt at all youth ages

No matter what age sports are being played at, they provide benefits that kids learn to long for and love.

For young children like Cheshire residents 9-year-old Bartlett and 7-year-old Paxson Lockwood, sports are where they find friends are beyond the (now virtual) fourth and first grade classrooms. Their father and Quinnipiac University philosophy professor, Thornton Lockwood, didn’t realize the affect losing sports had on their social interactions until they came back into his kids’ lives.

“I didn’t notice the absences much in the fall,” said Thornton. “But as soon as the skiing started in the winter season, I could see them, especially with Bartlett… He went like six or eight months without seeing his best friend, then all of a sudden he gets to see him twice a week and do the skiing.”

Watch this interview for Barlett and Paxson’s thoughts on losing sports during the pandemic:

It wasn’t just social time and interactions that were lost. For slightly older kids, a healthy competitive outlet was taken away when they were just beginning to develop passions for their sports.

West Haven residents Bob and Karen Studley say sports are an important part of their family’s life. The benefits of their kids playing sports have only been highlighted by the pandemic. Bob Studley played sports growing up and wasn’t surprised that his children Riley, 15, Sean, 13 and Ethan, 9, wanted to start young.

“They were interested, and I was happy to oblige their interest, and it was a way they instantly made friends,” said Bob. “They still have friends today from the first few teams that they joined.”

All three kids got their sports shut down at the beginning of the pandemic, and the family that was always driving to practices was suddenly stuck together on the couch.

“I just didn’t know what was going on,” said Sean, who’s in seventh grade. “I didn’t know what I was going to do for that period. I thought it was going to be [shut down] pretty long, but not as long as it has been.”

Sean was 12 years old when the pandemic began. For the first time since he could remember, he wasn’t playing any games. With no competition or team, his parents began to pick up on subtle changes in Sean.

“After a while, my wife and I noticed a change in his demeanor, almost,” said Bob Studley. “He was a little more surly, and we figured he didn’t really have an outlet. He couldn’t get go get in a game and compete, win or lose. So then he’d take it out on his little brother, or pick a fight with his sister. You could tell he was just missing out on competition and getting to be aggressive, seeing who can win and lose.”

“He became like the Grouch,” said Karen Studley. She added that it wasn’t until his sports started playing games again this spring that he started to act like himself again.

“He just missed [sports] a lot,” said Bob Studley. “He started to force it in other directions where it was a bit unhealthy, you know? He was just a fun loving, nice kid, and all of a sudden he was like this… It started to wear on him.”

Sean wasn’t the only child showing attitude changes without sports in quarantine. Cheshire resident Jean Caplan, mother of Caleb, 16 and Tema, 13, watched throughout the pandemic as her kids experienced withdrawal.

“[There was] inability to fall asleep or anyone to settle down and go to sleep, a lot more anxiousness,” said Caplan. The lack of socialization from not playing sports also affected both of her kids, but Tema appeared to struggle more with the isolation than Caleb.

“When [Caleb] couldn’t lift at the high school anymore, they went a place in town here but you just didn’t have as many kids go, so he wasn’t able to finish with his whole group,” said Caplan. “For Tema, most of the girls she plays with are older… She doesn’t go to school with them, they’re in a different part of the middle school, so she didn’t see a huge portion of her life.”

“I would maybe text [my teammates] or FaceTime them once in a while,” said Tema, who’s in seventh grade. “I’d never had that much free time, ever. I didn’t know what to do. I was just on my phone a little bit and I would try to go outside.”

Cheshire resident Melinda Grove, mother of Justin, 19, Caitlyn, 17 and Allie, 14, noted the same restless behavior patterns in her home when sports came to a stop.

“It was really hard,” said Grove. “It was a pretty drastic change for our family… We were all kind of withdrawn for a while. All the kids went through it. It was probably depression, really.”

She noticed that her youngest, eight-grader Allie, was having a hard time without the pandemic sport structure her older kids’ teams provided for them.

“She really didn’t know what to do with herself,” continued Grove. “Her lacrosse started up fairly early, but it was still a couple months where she had nothing. She was on her phone a lot, not really communicating with other people but on her phone, watching Netflix and things like that.”

Now one year later, youth sports are coming back in full swing

On March 4, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced that “all sports will be allowed to practice and compete, and all sports tournaments will be allowed, subject to Department of Health guidance.” After one year of stop-and-go, youth sports finally got the green light to come back into children’s lives.

The consensus among parents is the structure will be welcomed.

“There are some kids who will just go in the backyard and hit a million baseballs off a tee to stay with it, but most kids need structure,” said Bob Studley, who also coaches baseball. “They’re not just going to jump out there and do it on their own.”

As regulation rollbacks continue, some wonder whether youth sports will return to its pre-pandemic enrollment numbers. 

“There’ll be boosters and more vaccines and we will all learn to accommodate and move with all that energy of different viruses,” said Jean Caplan. “But I don’t think we’ll ever see the same numbers because I think that there’ll be parents that will always be overly cautious.”

Regardless of normalcy, children are looking forward to getting back their sports and friend-filled days.

“I’m excited to get back to how it was and see all my teammates, and go through the wins, losses, practices and encouraging each other,” said Tema Caplan. “Just seeing everybody and getting back that piece of me that I didn’t have.”