Survey: Kids Like NFL, Michael Jordan, But Not Athletes Who Use Drugs
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 10:03AM 
July 7, 2009: If you are among the plethora of marketers seeking some insight into the influential 8-14-year-old demographic, here are some things you might want to know: Their favorite sport is the NFL, their favorite movie is Twilight and their favorite athlete is Michael Jordan. At least that's the feeling among more than 1,000 kids between the ages of eight and 14 who were polled by Sports Illustrated Kids and C&R Research, Chicago, in April as part of a broad examination of kids’ views on sports, entertainment and the world around them. The full results are in the July issue of SI Kids, now on newsstands.
Among other findings, the economy and world issues are important issues, with their biggest concerns being joblessness and parents’ losing jobs followed by the environment and ending wars; they attend an average of six sporting events per month; players using performance enhancing drugs and the high cost of attending sporting events the two biggest problems, respectively, in sports, with 86% responding that athletes who have been proven to have used performance-enhancing drugs should not be allowed into their sports’ hall of fame. In addition, the poll found that while two-thirds of kids are playing organized sports, the average time spent per week playing sports is 2.75 hours and the average time spent per week playing videogames (sports/non-sports games) is 4.5 hours.
"The results from this SI Kids nationwide poll in partnership with C&R Research reflects that kids are very perceptive and that kids know what is going on in the world and in the home," Bob Der, managing editor, SI Kids Magazine, said in a statement. "Something like the economy that affects them every day if their parents are expressing concern about losing their jobs or having worries about what to do in the event of that happening – kids pick up on that." Back to Home Page