Development and Validity of the Fear of Water Assessment Questionnaire

Abstract

Fear of water is the strongest predictor for no or low swimming competencies. Some individuals will never learn to swim due to their complete avoidance of water, whereas others might have difficulty with learning due to the fact that they cannot sufficiently relax their body to facilitate floating or swimming. Therefore, it is important to identify these people and to establish effective teaching strategies that can best help this specific population. Recognizing this, there is a clear need for an assessment tool which can help swim teachers and coaches identify people with a fear of water. The study aimed to first develop and then validate a fear of water assessment questionnaire (FWAQ). 2074 male and female people participated in the creation of a 40-item questionnaire. The exploratory factor showed that a 3 factor solution including 20 items was most sensiblesuch a solution accounted for 31.69% of explained variance and the Cronbach's alpha α was 0.831, which makes for a reliable enough solution. A subsequent discriminant function analysis correctly classified 98.2% of participants. We concluded that the findings from this study support that the FWAQ is a valid scale that effectively identify people with fear of water.

The Effect of Using Goggles and Snorkel for Aquatic Skills Acquisition in Youth Learn-to-Swim Programs

“…Swimming teachers and coaches have commonly noted that the most common mistakes in backstroke swimming are holding the head too high and adopting a sitting position (Stibilj et al, 2020), usually because of the non-swimmer’s fear of water. Indeed, individuals classified as having a fear of water strongly disagreed and agreed, respectively, with the statements “I am able to push from the wall and glide on the surface,” and “When I am in a pool, I am afraid when I am not in contact with floor” (Misimi et al, 2020). Use of goggles (no snorkel was used during back gliding exercises) helped our young participants, with fear of water, place their heads in the correct horizontal position, perhaps giving them increased opportunities to adopt a correct posture and develop back gliding skills than our NGS participants.…”

“…We asked them to complete the Fear of Water Assessment Questionnaire (Misimi et al, 2020). Misimi et al (2020) found that this instrument is a valid 20-item scale that effectively identifies people with fear of water (Cronbach’s alpha was 0.831). See Table A6 in the Appendix.…”

Plaukimo trenerių ir vaikų patirtys įveikiant sunkumus pradėjus mokytis plaukti

“…Vandens baimei atpažinti yra kuriamos įvairios vertinimo priemonės, klausimynai (Misimi et al, 2020). Minėti autoriai, vystydami ir validuodami vandens baimės klausimyną, išskiria tris su vandens baime susijusius faktorius: sąlytis su vandens aplinka, natūrali vandens jėga ir judesio valdymas vandenyje.…”

“…Vaikų tyrimo duomenys atskleidė, kad vaikai turi didžiulę baimę pradėti plaukti be pagalbinių plaukimo priemonių. Vienas būdas sumažinti stresą ir nerimą esant vandenyje yra akinių ar kaukės naudojimas, kas suteikia galimybę atmerkti akis po vandeniu ir taip palengvinti veido panardinimą į vandenį (Kapus et al, 2018;Misimi et al, 2020). Taigi, anot F. Misimi ir kt.…”

“…Vis dėlto pripažįstama, kad pagalbinių priemonių naudojimas gali padidinti priklausomybę nuo tų daiktų, o tai savo ruožtu gali trukdyti įgyti galvos panardinimo ir atsimerkimo po vandeniu įgūdžių ir netgi padidinti bendrą vandens baimę, kai nėra kaukės ar akinių. Todėl kaukės ar akinių naudojimas turėtų būti vertinamas tik kaip priemonė sumažinti pradinį stresą ir nerimą dėl veido panardinimo ir akių atvėrimo po vandeniu (Misimi et al, 2020). R. K. Stallmanas ir kiti autoriai (2017) teigia, kad labai svarbios judesio kompetencijos yra plūduriavimas ir saugus įėjimas (panirimas) į vandenį, todėl šių kompetencijų mokymas turėtų būti kiekvienos vandens ir vandens saugumo programos dalis.…”