Utility of a scale to assess Australian children’s perceptions of their swimming competence and factors associated with child and parent perception

Abstract

Issue Addressed: Drowning is a global public health issue. Aims were to assess: (a) face validity of the "Pictorial Scale of Perceived Water Competence (PSPWC)," (b) the association between child and parent perception of child swimming competence and (c) factors associated with perception of child swimming competence. Methods: Child-parent dyads and swim instructors were recruited for a mixed method study. Children aged 4-8 years (n = 51) reported on: familiarity, progressions and their own swim competence in 17 swimming situations. Parents (n = 51) reported on child competence and swimming experience. Swim instructors (n = 15) were interviewed. Spearman's rank correlation was used to assess whether child and parent swim perception were associated. The Mann-Whitney U test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test or Kruskal-Wallis test were used to assess which factors were associated with child and/or parent report.Results: Children reported high familiarity of scenarios and could sequence items.Swim instructors concluded the PSPWC depicted swim skills accurately. There was no association between child and parent perception of children's swimming ability.Swimming level was positively associated with child perception but not parent proxy report. Swimming lesson experience, child sex, country of birth and disadvantage were not associated with child perception or parent proxy report. Older children perceived higher swimming competence but parent report was not associated with child age. Conclusions:Children have a better understanding of their swim competence than their parents do, suggesting parent education is needed. So what?The PSPWC could be used by teachers (both swimming and classroom) to inform parents how their child estimates their swim competence. If use of this tool was incorporated into education practice this could assist in creating awareness, which can be the start of advocacy towards the creation of policy to assist in the provision of accessible swim education for all Australian children.

Differences between Young Children’s Actual, Self-perceived and Parent-perceived Aquatic Skills

“…(2016) indicated that both children and parents found it harder to accurately estimate a child’s aquatic skill level when the child was less skilled. In contrast, also using the PSPWC, De Pasquale et al. (2020) found no association between 4-8 year-old children’s and their parent’s perceptions of their swimming ability and reported that swimming level (i.e., beginner, intermediate or squad category, based on a standardized ranking system created by the researchers) was positively associated with children’s self-perception but not with the parent’s perceptions.…”

“…(2020) found no association between 4-8 year-old children’s and their parent’s perceptions of their swimming ability and reported that swimming level (i.e., beginner, intermediate or squad category, based on a standardized ranking system created by the researchers) was positively associated with children’s self-perception but not with the parent’s perceptions. De Pasquale et al. (2020) concluded that children have a better understanding of their swim competence than their parents do, suggesting parent education is needed.…”

“…Its development was driven by an international reference group consisting of academic members from six different countries (i.e., Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, and Portugal) with expertise in swimming, aquatic skills and/or perceived competence. The validation of this assessment tool is currently ongoing (De Pasquale et al., 2020; Morgado et al., 2020). The PSPWC aims to measure the child’s (or others’) perceptions of a child’s physical water competence, based on 17 different aquatic situations that vary in complexity and the associated required skills.…”

“…In addition to the need to more closely examine the relationship between both children’s actual and self-perceived aquatic skill competence, there is a critically important concomitant need to compare parental perceptions and children’s actual aquatic skills (De Pasquale et al., 2020; Morrongiello et al., 2014). In studies conducted on dry land, investigators have found low to moderate agreements between children’s and parents’ perceptions of children’s actual motor competence (Duncan et al., 2018; Kennedy et al., 2012; Lalor et al., 2016; Raudsepp & Liblik, 2002; Toftegaard-Stoeckel et al., 2010).…”

“…Despite the importance of accurate self-perception and parent-perception of a child’s aquatic skills, only limited research to date has focused on the relationship, and more importantly, the degree of (dis)agreement between these perceptions and children’s actual aquatic skill levels (e.g., Costa et al., 2020; De Pasquale et al., 2020). This limited research on aquatic skills is in stark contrast with the ever-increasing reports of actual and perceived motor competence on dry land (De Meester et al., 2020; Estevan & Barnett, 2018; Hulteen et al., 2020).…”