NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt University released the results of a study that looked into whether parents send children to school with masks and other attitudes towards the pandemic. In the study, they polled 1,026 parents through the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy. It was conducted in late fall 2021 before the Omicron variant led to dramatically rising cases across Tennessee.
In the study, they found around 67% of parents sent their children to school with a mask on, while 53% said their child's school had a mask requirement. They also found parents were almost evenly split on vaccine requirements in schools.
The study found 40% of parents agreed with a requirement, while 40% disagreed with it. The remaining 20% of parents said they were indifferent to a vaccine requirement in schools.
Around half of the polled parents said they believed children would be safer if educators were masked, while 23% disagreed. The remaining parents said they were indifferent to personnel in schools being masked.
East Tennessee parents were the least likely to send kids to school in mask out of all Tennessee. Around 63% of parents said they sent children to school in a mask, compared to 74% in West Tennessee.
East Tennessee parents were also less likely to say schools should require COVID-19 vaccines. Only 32% of parents agreed with vaccine requirements, compared to 46% of parents in West Tennessee.
They also analyzed parents' biggest concerns in each region of Tennessee. At the top of the list for all three regions was education and school quality. Then, both West and East Tennessee said they were concerned about bullying and cyberbullying. However, Middle Tennessee parents said they were more concerned about child mental health and suicide.
East Tennessee parents said child mental health was third on the list of their concerns, followed by drug and alcohol use. The fifth-most pressing concern in the area was disruptions to schooling due to COVID-19.
However, West Tennessee parents did not list child mental health on their top 5 concerns. Instead, they said they were more concerned about gun violence and injuries among kids. Middle and West Tennessee parents also said they were concerned about children getting sick from COVID-19.
The study also looked at the biggest concerns by race. Both White and Black parents said education and school quality was their biggest concern, but White parents said child mental health was next on the list. Black parents said they were more worried about children getting sick from COVID-19, followed by racial inequality.
Researchers also looked at student masking behaviors by race. They found 81% of Black parents said their child's school had a mask requirement, compared to only 49% of White parents.
Around 88% of Black parents also said they send children to school in a mask, compared to 63% of White parents.
