Study Shows Minorities Can't Swim
Research Shows Up To 60% Of Minority Children At Risk Of Drowning
USA Swimming recently headed a study to see how well children of different races were able to swim safely. Black children did twice as poorly as white children.
A new survey has confirmed the stereotype that African American children do not know how to swim. The survey, taken by USA Swimming, showed that 60 percent of African American children could not swim, a figure twice as high as that of white children.
Solving the Problem
In response to these results, USA Swimming is combining with local governments, corporations and ethnic organizations to teach more black children how to swim. The lack of this skill accounts for black children to be three times more likely to drown. It also keeps them out of water sports competitions. Only 2 percent of the 250,000 competitive swimmers with USA Swimming are African American or black.
Cullen Jones, a black professional swimmer who plans to compete in this year’s summer Olympics, is one of the people aiding in this effort. USA Swimming too plans to benefit from the induction of these programs by bringing in a new demographic of swimmers and more involvement in swimming overall.
The Big Deal
The latest statistics have shown that drowning was the leading cause of accidental death of children between the ages of one and four in 2005, about 30 percent or 1,664 children that year. There is disagreement over when to start teaching kids how to swim. The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that children shouldn’t start learning until the age of four when their muscles are developed well enough. Parents and swimming schools often believe children should start younger before they begin to develop a fear of the water.
The study was conducted at the University of Memphis’ Department of Health and Sports Sciences. They surveyed 1,772 children in six cities between the ages of 6 and 16. Two-thirds of the children were minorities, either black or Hispanic. This was done to monitor which factors were attributed to their lack of swimming skills.
While 31 percent of the white children were found to be unsafe swimmers, 58 percent of the black children tested the same. The Hispanic children were also high at 56 percent. However, twice as many Hispanics are enrolled in USA Swimming classes than black children.
Causes and Solutions
Parents were considered a significant factor in the children’s inability to swim. If the parents couldn’t swim, the kids couldn’t swim, or if the parents were afraid of their children going into the water, the children had little exposure to the activity. In saying this, the researchers in the study believe that educating and motivating parents is the first step to training the children.
Prejudice and stereotyping is another factor. Segregation in public swimming pools made swimming less accessible to the black community. Few pools were built in predominantly black neighborhoods for this reason. Early studies also showed that black people were less buoyant than white people.
For these reasons, swimming created a negative association with these people. However, a result of the new study showed that many black and Hispanic children do not consider swimming to be a sport for whites only. Given the chance with this developing program, the attitudes about swimming and race will change as will the risks associated with this activity.
