With summer nearly here, many parents may be deciding whether or not it’s safe to send their children to camp this year.
New data from YouGov suggests that 47% of Americans believe it’s safe for children under 18 to go to summer camp this year. Slightly fewer (42%) believe that it is unsafe.
Among those who are parents to at least one child under 18, a majority (57%) think that it is safe for children to go to summer camp this year. Another 37% of parents are still cautious, however.
Among those Americans who attended summer camp themselves as children, 57% believe it is safe for children to go to camp this year. Among those who did not ever go to summer camp themselves, fewer (39%) think it is safe for children to go this year.
There is widespread consensus on the question of whether summer camps should require proof of a negative coronavirus test before children can attend an overnight summer camp. About seven in 10 (68%) Americans say they support this, while one in five (20%) are opposed.
The results are similar among parents: 73% say they support this policy, 20% are opposed.
The belief that summer camp is safe may be linked in part to the fact that COVID-19 deaths are declining, as well as the feeling among many parents that their families are ready to return to something resembling normalcy.
A separate poll conducted by YouGov and The Economist in March 2021 found that 51% of parents wanted their children to return to in-person schooling. Among the reasons why, 64% said they wanted peer interaction for their child, and 57% expressed a desire for returning to a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy.
See full results here.
Related: Americans think stay-at-home parenting should be considered a job
Methodology: 15,440 US adults 18+ were surveyed between April 29 – May 2, 2021. The responding sample is weighted to be representative of the US population.
