Parents pouring sunscreen on kids but not on themselves

Does being a parent of young children make you a better sunscreen user? Not when it comes to protecting yourself, according to our survey of 1,000 people about their sunscreen behavior. One-quarter of them said they had children under the age of 12, and they were no more likely than adults without young children to use sunscreen protection on themselves, regardless of the length of time outside. Nor did they reapply it any more frequently than nonparents under most conditions.

But they showed more diligence when it came to their children: Even when in the sun for less than an hour, more than two in five parents said they frequently put sunscreen on their children (compared with only one in five who said they put it on themselves). Sixty-nine percent said they put sunscreen on their kids if they were going to be in the sun for two to four hours; for more than four hours, the figure rose to 78 percent. And nine in 10 parents said they put sunscreen on their children before letting them go in a swimming pool.