DS 10 Create Standardized Water Safety Questions for Behavioral Surveillance
Create and disseminate a bank of standardized questions on water safety knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors for the purposes of program evaluation, and for integration into existing behavioral surveillance systems, such as Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) and Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).
Spectrum level: Changing Organizational Practices
Evidence level: Medium
Rationale:
The ability to collect this type of data (what people think, know and do) will support efforts to derive a deeper level of understanding around situational aspects of fatal and non-fatal drowning incidents. Moving past basic demographics and expanding to consistently collected data related to situation and behaviors directly supports the development of effective and relevant prevention strategies. Data from questions that measures knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, intentions and behaviors allows tailoring of prevention interventions and is commonly used in public health. Some of this type of information that is available is related directly to water safety and swim lessons and others are derived from work around widely used behavioral theories/models such as Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Reasoned Action Approach (RAA).
Anticipated Impact:
After implementing this recommendation, you can expect to experience the following outcomes.
- The ability to collect this type of data supports efforts to derive a deeper level of understanding around situational aspects of fatal and non-fatal drowning incidents.
- Expanding to consistently collected data beyond demographics and related to situation and behaviors supports the development of effective and relevant prevention strategies.
- Development at national level can lead to implementation at state and local levels.
Evidence:
There are many examples of valid measures aimed at understanding knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, intentions and behaviors within the context of water safety and swim lessons and beyond (CITE).
Evidence Sources:
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (2011). Predicting and changing behavior: The reasoned action approach. Psychology press.
Howland, J., Hingson, R., Mangione, T. W., Bell, N., & Bak, S. M. P. H. (1996). Why are most drowning victims men? Sex differences in aquatic skills and behaviors. American journal of public health, 86(1), 93-96.
Ramos, W. D., & Anderson, A. R. (2017). A reasoned action approach assessment of instructional youth swim safety messaging. International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education, 10(2), 7. YRBSS: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/index.htm
High Risk Populations Addressed:
Populations whose risk of drowning decreases the most with the implementation of this recommendation may have one or more of the following characteristics:
- Children
- Communities that have been historically marginalized or underserved
- Individuals with cognitive or physical disabilities, including conditions such as autism, seizure disorders, and arrhythmias
Evaluation Metrics:
Indicators of long-term impact:
- Development of an evaluation instrument
- Program evaluations - Collection of longitudinal study data to track long term impacts and outcomes
- Rigorous research to develop the appropriate tools to collect behavioral data
- Development of usable instruments
Indicators of intermediate impact:
- The water safety community understands the importance of collecting some information to gauge change in behavior
- A basic tool to help the process is available until a more robust method can be developed and implemented
Indicators of initial impact:
- Creation of a standard list of situational and behavioral data to be collected
- The instruments to collect and interpret the data in a meaningful manner are provided
Implementation:
Consider the following to ensure successful implementation:
- Establish a team of academics with a expertise in behavioral science to work with those in aquatics (e.g., lifeguards) and drowning prevention to take on the task of developing these questions.
Challenges to Implementation:
When implementing this recommendation, you might encounter challenges related to the following factors.
- Leaders to oversee, organize and fund the research, and development, maintenance, and dissemination of data are needed. - Measuring behaviors, and their related components of knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, intentions, may be time intensive.
Potential Facilitators:
The following factors might facilitate the implementation of this recommendation.
- Current expertise in the areas of drowning prevention, injury reduction, and behavior change.
GAP Recommendation:
There is a lack of understanding around knowledge and behaviors (including: attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, intentions) of aquatic participants, parents, and those who provide supervision, those responsible for delivering information about water safety, and those having oversight of drowning prevention efforts. Having a better understanding of these factors would lead to more effective interventions.