KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A recent study concluded that Kansas City area kids aren’t as active as they should be — and improving that will take some major changes.

A 12-month-long study conducted by the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program, the State of Play Kansas City, says only 20% of surveyed youth in the region receive 60 minutes of physical activity daily, as recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s below the average physical activity rates for the United States (24%), Kansas (24%) and Missouri (26%).

The report mentioned several key themes as barriers for children to play, Bill Brandmeyer said. He founded ShareWaves Foundation in Kansas City, which aims to improve children’s lives through sports. He served on the State of Play Kansas City advisory group for the Aspen Institute’s report.

The institute worked with the Kansas City Healthy Lifestyles Collaborative and Children’s Mercy to survey more than 4,000 kids in grades 3-12 across Clay, Jackson and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas.

Brandmeyer said that in the survey, many kids pointed to a lack of resources preventing them from being more active: not enough transportation to and from organized sports, play spaces, infrastructure to support youth with disabilities, recreational and school opportunities, and mental health services.

Active youth are defined as kids who get over 60 minutes of physical activity daily, according to the study. Inactive youth are defined as kids who reported zero days with at least 60 minutes of physical activity per week.

Here’s a look at the the study’s findings and why youth aren’t as physically active.

Lack of transportation

Most activity spaces are on the outskirts of the Kansas City area, which Brandmeyer said makes it challenging for inner-city children to access them. Accessing play areas can be difficult in some neighborhoods where streets don’t have sidewalks or kids don’t feel safe walking to and from a play area.

The report said that among surveyed children who indicated they don’t visit parks and green spaces as often as they would like, 12% said that’s because walking there is not safe. The survey also says that:

•77% of kids have a family member who usually drives them to play spaces, practices or games, but children from low-income households are less likely (61%) to use family members for transportation than those from middle-income (76%) and high-income households (83%).

•Just 8% of low-income kids participate in travel sports, and 33% of low-income youth say they don’t play sports because it’s too expensive.

Lack of infrastructure to support youth with disabilities

Children with disabilities in the Kansas City area face even more barriers to accessing sports. The survey reports that there are limited resources to support sports for youth with disabilities, and that of the surveyed kids, youth with disabilities are more likely (41%) than youth without disabilities (25%) to say they do not play sports due to the cost.

The report says most youth with disabilities connect with organizations like The Whole Person, which helps people with disabilities live independent lives, through word of mouth. Programs made to connect youth with disabilities to sports can be also limited in their reach. For instance, Midwest Adaptive Sports is volunteer-based and can only serve people in the Lee’s Summit and south Kansas City areas.

Mental health is worst with kids who aren’t active

Inactive youth feel negatively about themselves at nearly double the rate of active youth every day, according to the study. The fact was one of the most surprising to Robin Shook, director of the Kansas City Healthy Lifestyle Collaborative for Children’s Mercy Kansas City.

Inactive youth said they reported feeling:

•Depression and hopelessness 20% of the time, while active said they felt this way 9% of the time

•Nervousness and anxiety 18% of the time, but active youth reported this feeling 11% of the time

•Worried 17% of the time, while active kids felt worried 12% of the time

For positive feelings, 34% of active youth said they felt happy at one point during the day, 27% said they felt motivated and 28% said they felt excited.

“If I send my 15-year-old kid to go outside to shoot baskets for an hour, he’s a different kid when he comes back inside the house,” Brandmeyer said. “He’s just a better kid and it’s so incredible how good physical activity is for these kids.”

Which kids are the most active?

The study broke down the activeness of kids based on demographics, like race, gender and income status. Here’s what the statistics say:

•24% of boys are active, compared to 15% of girls and 13% of nonbinary kids who are active.

•High-income kids (23%) are more active than low-income kids (20%), who are more active than middle-income (17%) kids.

•White high school teens in Kansas (33%) and Missouri (30%) reported getting at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity, higher than Black teens (13% in Kansas and 22% in Missouri) and Hispanic teens (17% in Kansas and 24% in Missouri).

•44% of kids in the study reported they spend three to five hours daily on a screen for fun outside of school and 11% said they spend 11 hours or more on a screen daily. The study says Black children are two times more likely to spend 11 hours or more on their screen than white children.

“All of us have a role in creating safe and equitable opportunities for our kids to participate in youth sports, every one of us,” Shook said. “If you’re a youth sports provider, hopefully you’re asking yourself if you have age-appropriate practice plans, provide scholarships or transportation stipends to kids.”

“If you’re a parent, do you ask your children what they want to do. Do you give them a voice in the activities that they’re choosing to do?”

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