Burnay, C., Anderson, D. I., Button, C., & Cordovil, R. (2023). Effect of baby swimming lessons on infants’ avoidance of bodies of water. Developmental Psychobiology, 65, e22434. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22434
Burnay, C., Anderson, D. I., Button, C., & Cordovil, R. (2023). Effect of baby swimming lessons on infants’ avoidance of bodies of water. Developmental Psychobiology, 65, e22434. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22434
Burnay, C., Anderson, D. I., Button, C., & Cordovil, R. (2023). Effect of baby swimming lessons on infants’ avoidance of bodies of water. Developmental Psychobiology, 65, e22434. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22434
Burnay, C., Anderson, D. I., Button, C., & Cordovil, R. (2023). Effect of baby swimming lessons on infants’ avoidance of bodies of water. Developmental Psychobiology, 65, e22434. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22434
Abstract
Despite the popularity of infant swimming programs, no evidence exists to determine whether they influence infants’ judgements and behavior when confronted with bodies of water. In the current study we examined whether the total number of swimming sessions an infant had participated in predicted whether they avoided a body of water they could enter via an edge (n = 101 infants) or a slope (n = 77 infants). An initial regression analysis revealed no association between the number of sessions and avoidance of the water via either type of entry. However, a secondary analysis of infants who had participated in fewer or more than 10 sessions revealed a significant interaction between number of sessions and type of entry into the water. Infants who participated in more than 10 sessions were more likely to avoid the water if they could access it via an edge but significantly more likely to enter the water if they could access it via a slope. Because we tested the two groups of infants in different countries, further research is warranted to determine if cultural differences in child rearing practices or variations in the content and/or teaching of the swimming programs might explain these intriguing findings.
Keywords
Water Slope; Water Cliff; drowning; perceptual-motor development; affordances
Subject
Social Sciences, Behavior Sciences
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
