Assessing the effectiveness of a water safety program for junior high school students in Japan¹

Abstract

Water safety programs to protect children from water-related accidents and increase their awareness of the risk factor crucial to maintaining safety. This study examined the behavior of 48 junior high school students after an intervention program on water safety in a river using the Rohrmann’s Risk Communication Model and the Analysis, Design, Development, and Evaluation (ADDIE) model. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to collect responses about the children’s perception of danger at three-time points: pre-post-post (5 months) after the program’s implementation. We hypothesized that water safety education can increase children’s awareness of appropriate behavior around water and raise their awareness of danger. The evaluation indicators consisted of an increase in the awareness of the water area risk perception, general risk acceptance, and risk-taking behavior. The results suggest that practical water safety program may have a positive effect on the students’ awareness of water safety and help prevent water accidents. This study is unique in that it was conducted in a natural body of water.

Keywords:

• Clothed swimming
• water safety education
• risk awareness
• program design
• river safety

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to all the people involved in the junior high school experiment, as well as to all the children and students who participate in this research. In addition, this research would not have been possible without the cooperation of the fire departments that have jurisdiction over the junior high school. Again, we would like to express our most sincere gratitude to them.

Statements of ethics approval

This study was conducted with the approval of the Ethics Review Committee of Gifu Seitoku Gakuen University (No. 202101).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. SRAScale of Risk Acceptance.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the JSPS KAKENHI [grant number JP 19H01713]

Notes on contributors

Toshiyuki Kishi

Toshiyuki Kishi Coursework completed without degree from Graduate School of Human Sciences, Waseda University in 2007. Ph.D. (Human Science) (Waseda University) in 2008. After working as an assistant professor at Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University and an associate professor at the Center for Educational Practice, Faculty of Education and Regional Science, University of Fukui, he has been an associate professor at the Faculty of Education and Humanities and Social Sciences, Fukui University since April 2016. He specializes in educational psychology and educational technology.

Masafumi Ohnishi

Masafumi Ohnishi He completed his graduate studies at Kobe University in 2007 and received Ph.D. (Academic) (Kobe University). After working as an associate professor at the Faculty of Education and Regional Science, University of Fukui, he has been an associate professor at the Faculty of Education and Humanities and Social Sciences, Fukui University since April 2016. He specializes in developmental psychology and adolescent psychology.

Ryousuke Inagaki

Ryosuuke Inagaki In 1995, he graduated from Joetsu University of Education with a Master’s degree in Education. He has worked as a teacher at a public elementary school in Gifu Prefecture, and has been an associate professor at the Faculty of Education and Regional Science, University of Fukui since 2010. After working as an associate professor in the Faculty of Education and Humanities and Social Sciences, Fukui University, he became a professor at the Faculty of Education, Gifu Seitoku Gakuen University in 2017. He specializes in physical education.