Poll Reports

A majority of parents favor requiring regular hearing screenings for children from preschool through teenage years. For preschool-age children, two-thirds of parents prefer primary care offices for hearing screening. About half of parents prefer that hearing screening for older children take place in schools.

Two-thirds of adults think children should be at least 13 to use the Internet on their own. 29% of parents with children age 9-12 say their child has their own Wi-Fi enabled device; 21% of parents of children age 5-8 have such devices. Nearly two-thirds of adults strongly support proposed updates to COPPA legislation to protect children under age 13.

Nearly two-thirds of parents of young children in child care say their children could not attend because of illness in the past year. One-third of parents of young kids are concerned about losing jobs or pay when missing work to care for sick kids.

81% of adults say schools should take action if a student embarrasses or humiliates another student. 76% of adults believe schools should take action if a student spreads rumors about another student. 56% of adults believe schools should take action if a student isolates another student socially.

Adults rate ‘not enough exercise’ at the top of the list of big health problems for children in their communities. Other top health concerns include childhood obesity, smoking, drug abuse and bullying. Top child health concerns differ for black and Hispanic adults compared with white adults.

Most US adults support laws allowing teens to get medical care for sexually transmitted infections without parental consent. Less than half of US adults support laws allowing teens to receive HPV vaccine without their parents’ consent. For those opposing teen vaccination without parental consent, the parental decision-making role was most important.

The public rates childhood obesity as the top priority for presidential candidates to address. Other high-ranking child health priorities for candidates to address in the public’s view are bullying, drug abuse, and child abuse and neglect. There were no differences in child health priorities by adults’ political party affiliation or race/ethnicity.

Over 60% of children who play school sports had an athletic pay-to-play fee; only 6% received waivers for the fee. Only one-third of lower-income parents report their child participates in school sports, while more than half of higher-income parents have a teen playing school sports.

Overall, 79% of parents and 85% of grandparents of young kids report having prescription medicine at home. Grandparents are 4 times more likely than parents to keep prescription medicine in easy-access places. About two-thirds of adults overall would support potential new laws that would require medicines to be packaged as single-dose servings. 

Overall, 44% of adults in the U.S. believe that sexting is a very serious issue among teens. Most adults (81%) would support state laws requiring schools to educate kids and parents about youth sexting. Most adults do not favor legal consequences for sexting among minors.