Effect of the Subjective Perception and Learning Attitude on the Water Safety Consciousness of Elementary School Students according to the Retraining of Survival Swimming

Objectives: In this study, we analyzed the impact of elementary school students' subjective perceptions and learning attitudes towards survival swimming retraining on their water safety consciousness. The objective was to contribute to the enhancement of their mental health by promoting physical health, ensuring a safe lifestyle, and inducing psychological stability. Methods: We recruited 160 elementary school students who participated in survival swimming retraining. We measured subjective perceptions using the subjective perception scale related to survival swimming retraining; learning attitudes were assessed using the learning attitude scale for survival swimming retraining. We used the water safety consciousness scale to measure water safety consciousness. Results: The causal analysis revealed that among the sub-factors of subjective perception, swimming lessons positively influenced the safety awareness sub-factor of water safety consciousness, and coping with dangerous situations positively affected safety education. Among the sub-factors of learning attitude, learning motivation in lessons positively influenced both safety prevention consciousness and safety awareness. Lesson achievement motivation positively influenced safety prevention consciousness, and lesson concentration positively influenced safety awareness. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the importance of survival swimming retraining and suggest that such training should be repeatedly conducted in elementary schools. Improving students' perceptions and attitudes towards survival swimming is crucial in enhancing water safety consciousness, thus increasing the effectiveness of survival swimming education. In turn, this will help ensure that students maintain physical health, lead a safe lifestyle, and improve their psychological stability and mental health.