Taking a Risk Perception Approach to Improving Beach Swimming Safety

Abstract

The effectiveness of water safety education programs could be strengthened by enhancing risk appraisal and coping skills and counter-acting the tendency of males and younger adults to overestimate their swimming ability and underestimate their risk with regard to drowning.

Surveying rip current survivors: preliminary insights into the experiences of being caught in rip currents

“…The idealised schematic in (c) shows that water transported onshore by breaking waves is either recirculated by rip currents within the surf zone or carried seaward through a narrow rip neck where it dissipates in an expanding rip head. investigated the general behaviour and safety awareness of beachgoers (see for example: Ballantyne et al, 2005;Moran, 2006Moran, , 2008Wilks et al, 2007;McCool et al, 2008McCool et al, , 2009Morgan et al, 2008;Sherker et al, 2010). Recently, several studies have attempted to link the physical behaviour of rip currents with the incidence of drowning and swimmer response to being caught in rip currents (MacMahan et al, 2010;Houser et al, 2011;Miloshis and Stephenson, 2011).…”

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviours of New Zealand Youth in Surf Beach Environments

“…The final survey consisted of 17 questions and consisted mostly of closed questions, using a combination of multiple-choice, true-false, and a five-point Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, unsure, disagree, strongly disagree). Where possible, pre-validated questions and scales were used to strengthen external validity, drawing from a range of existing water safety surveys (Brander et al, 2013;McCool et al, 2009;Moran, 1996Moran, , 2003Moran, , 2009Moran, , 2013Moran & Willcox, 2013). The survey was structured to allow completion within 20 minutes and was completed during class time.…”

“…Three pictorial questions were adapted from the Australian Rip Safe Project (with permission from lead researcher Rob Brander) (Brander et al, 2013) to visually test rip knowledge, with photos of three different beaches with a rip current present. The final question used an illustration of a dangerous local surf beach and was designed to measure cognitive understanding of hazard identification and personal decision making skills when at the beach (Moran 2003(Moran , 2009). To allow direct comparison of responses from the 2003 New Zealand Youth Water Safety Survey to the present, the question used the same assessment procedures (Moran, 2009(Moran, , 2003.…”

“…A national youth water safety survey conducted in 2003, reported that up to 75% of 15-16 year olds surveyed had swum at a patrolled beach, and around half had swum at an unpatrolled beach during the previous year (Moran, 2009). …”

Approaches for Beach Safety and Education in Ghana: A Case Study for Developing Countries with a Surf Coast

“…Develop the content of the initial education program based on results of the physical site assessments, data gathered from the questionnaires, and findings from the literature relating to open water and surf swimming safety and hazards (e.g., McCool, Ameratunga, Moran, & Robinson, 2009;Moran, Quan, Franklin, & Bennett, 2011;Hatfield, Williamson, Sherker, Brander, & Hayen, 2012). This information should be combined with existing content from SEI surf education programs run in Australia.…”