Systematic observations were made of five lifeguards at indoor public swimming pools. Scanning by lifeguards was associated with lower incidences of rule violations by swimmers. Greater numbers of lifeguards patrolling the pool areas tended to reduce violations. Rules violations tended to be fewer when adult-to-child ratios were low, suggesting that monitoring by a parent or an adult may encourage rule compliance.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CoffmanS. P. (1991) Parent education for drowning prevention. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 5, 141–146.
2.
DietzP. E.BakerS. P. (1974) Drowning: epidemiology and prevention. American Journal of Public Health, 64, 303–312.
3.
HarrellW. A. (1995) Risky activities and accidents involving children in public swimming pools: the role of adults and lifeguard supervision. In Proceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors Society.Santa Monica, CA: The Human Factors Society. P. 933.
4.
HarrellW. A. (1999) Lifeguards' vigilance: effects of child-adult ratio and lifeguard positioning on scanning by lifeguards. Psychological Reports, 84, 193–197.
5.
KempA.SibertJ. R. (1992) Drowning and near drowning of children in the United Kingdom: lessons for prevention. British Medical Journal, 304, 1143–1146.
6.
QuanL.GoreF. J.WentzK. (1982) Ten-year study of pediatric drownings and near-drownings in King County, Washington: lessons in injury prevention. Pediatrics, 83, 1035–1040.
7.
RatteD.LernerN.HueyR. (1991) Development of child-resistant latches to prevent child access to home swimming pools. In Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors Society, Santa Monica, CA: The Human Factors Society. Pp. 1053–1057.
8.
Royal Life Saving Society of Canada. (1993) Alert lifeguarding in action.Ottawa, ON: Royal Life Saving Society of Canada.
