Can You Float? Part 2 - Perceptions and Practice of Lifejacket Use Among Young Adults

Abstract

Personal flotation devices (PFDs), commonly referred to as lifejackets, have been identified as an extremely effective form of drowning prevention and was identified as a critical distinct water competency by Stallman and colleagues (2017). In this second phase of the Can You Float? study, perceptions and practice of a range of lifejacket tasks among students (N = 40) with known water proficiency were examined. Participants estimated exertion levels before and after practical testing of six simulated survival tasks when wearing lifejackets. All participants completed a 25m sprint swim, 5-minute endurance swim, 5minute float, and 25m partner assist but many failed to complete a 15m underwater swim (63%) and deep water exit (63%). Students underestimated the level of exertion required to complete the underwater swim and deep water exit. Reasons for, and implications of, this underestimation are discussed and recommendations for the teaching of lifejacket competency in water safety programs are made.

Perceived and Real Aquatic Competence in Children from 6 to 10 Years Old

“…It is considered the faster and the most economic technique [ 45 ], and when swum head up, enables better all-round visibility permitting one to avoid perils and to select the safer direction [ 46 ]. Despite the utilization of other techniques being more favorable in certain contexts, front crawl has been used to test several abilities regarding drowning prevention [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. In fact, in the Moran Study, some participants struggled to swim front crawl with clothes on.…”

“…Swimming programs worldwide are not rigorously structured to teach how to behave when falling in the water, and how to find or reach safer places after that. Moreover, most programs focus on the traditional swim tasks instead of adding unexpected challenges like working with depth of the fall, and the fall distance from the wall, or the exiting from the water [ 35 , 37 ]. So, these findings attribute greater importance to what children may perceive and execute in the Sk2 skill as this is an aspect that may solve unexpected falls both in swimming pool and in the open water context.…”

“…Overestimation is usually reported when assessing perceived aquatic competence (PAC) among minority groups [ 31 ], or among young adults [ 17 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. Only Rejman et al [ 6 ] reported an underestimation of the swimming skills of boys (14–15 years), despite both boys and girls having a poor level of aquatic competencies and needing a more comprehensive aquatic education.…”

“…This last study provided insight into the differences between what people think they can do and what they can really do. However, accidents involving drowning possibilities pose challenging situations like wearing clothes [ 33 , 36 ], wearing lifejackets [ 35 ], or even in a simple task like getting out of the water after such an episode [ 37 ]. Unfortunately, in all of the last studies, aquatic competency or the perceived exertion to accomplish the demanded task were overestimated, although the participants were all young adults.…”