I mean, Lake Superior is absolutely gorgeous. Has that wide open feeling and clear water of an ocean, but none of the hurricane risk. It does get cold though.

I imagine they’re thinking primarily of poor kids in more urban areas, where access to the water is often a luxury. My experience is like yours though, I was a poor rural kid who spent plenty of summers mucking about in the nearest river. I think our experiences are probably similar to that of many other poor children living in the country. The study isn’t viewable for me so I’m not sure how (or if) it accounts for this rural/urban distinction.

Are there more poor city kids than poor rural kids? Because as another poor kid who grew up playing in a river, that’s pretty common in rural areas in the United States at least. “Blue spaces” can provide free entertainment, free relief from hot summers, and in some cases, a source of free food as well. My siblings and I spent countless hours around the water and all the neighbor kids did too. These weren’t vacations to a beach somewhere with our parents, just a handful of children playing unsupervised on a muddy river bank.