YMCA of the USA Water Safety Awareness Evaluation
Problem
Drowning is the second leading cause of death among children under 14 and a serious public health issue in the United States.
Drowning disproportionately affects certain racial and ethnic groups. Black adolescent children, ages 10 to 14 years, are seven times more likely to drown than white children in public pools. Additionally, American Indian and Alaska Native populations have higher drowning death rates than white populations in natural water. Factors that increase the risk of drowning include not being able to swim, having a lack of supervision, and not wearing life jackets, among others.
Solution
Drowning among children is a public health issue that can be prevented through learning basic swimming and water safety skills.
The YMCA of the USA is a leading organization that teaches children of all ages and backgrounds about water safety through its Safety Around Water (SAW) program, focusing on eight swim safety topics such as life jacket use, CPR, pool drain safety, among other relevant topics. YMCA of the USA contracted with NORC at the University of Chicago to evaluate the water safety component of their SAW program called Water Smarts. This project seeks to assess whether the Water Smarts component of the SAW program is achieving its intended goals of improving knowledge and self-efficacy around water safety for children ages 4-14.
Result
YMCA’s program increased knowledge of and self-efficacy about water safety.
Across 14 YMCA locations, children who participated in the SAW program showed meaningful improvements in water safety knowledge, with clear gains recorded at 10 of the 14 locations. In addition to learning new water safety information, the percentage of children who reported feeling “very sure” about their ability to keep themselves safe around water increased by 17 percentage points after participating in the SAW program. This increase suggests that the program not only helped children learn important water safety skills, but also strengthened their self-efficacy and confidence—an important factor for making safe choices in water and aquatics settings.
Related Tags
Project Leads
-
Alycia Bayne
Associate DirectorSenior Advisor -
Nada Adibah
Research ScientistProject Manager
