Development and Validation of an Attitude Measure in Open Water Activities

Abstract

Although individual attitudes play a critical role in understanding risky behaviors during open water activities, an attitude scale for open water activities has not yet been developed in the fields of sports and leisure. Thus, this study developed and validated an attitude scale for open water activities (AS-OWA) to better understand participants’ safety perceptions. For the pilot study (n = 226) and the main study (n = 392), we collected data from individuals participating in open water activities. Results showed that the AS-OWA comprised 27 items across four subfactors (i.e. appreciation, determination, imprudence, and caution) and had adequate psychometric properties. The findings of this study contribute to predicting the risky behaviors of open water activity participants and support the development of educational and intervention programs to minimize the fatality rate related to drowning.

Keywords:

• attitude
• open water activity
• reliability
• scale development
• validity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data used in this study are available upon request from the first author. All data have been de-identified to protect participant confidentiality. Access to the data will be granted in compliance with institutional policies and subject to a data use agreement.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Sport Singapore. The authors appreciate Ms. Delphine Fong (Director, Sports Safety at Sport Singapore) supporting data collection.