Engaging beachgoers for drowning prevention: the spillover effects on non-participants

Despite reduced drowning incidence at lifeguard patrolled beaches, 71 drowning fatalities occurred on Australian beaches last year (2021-2022). Prevailing drowning prevention practices on beaches include patrolling lifeguards positioning safety flags in less hazardous locations and encouraging beachgoers to swim between them. Such methods represent a 'deficit based' approach to community engagement, in which experts determine acceptable behaviours and encourage adherence using a one-way transfer of information. Deficit based approaches can be useful, but participatory forms of community engagement are hypothesised to support learning that can transfer to other locations and through non-participants' social networks. Using a lifeguard patrolled beach in Gerroa, Australia as a case study, we employed a 'relationship building' methodology to explore whether engagements on the beach can prompt transformational learning and whether such learning spills over to non-participants or to unpatrolled locations. Findings from 49 survey-interview engagements and 15 follow-up interviews suggest that building relationships with researchers is an enjoyable form of community engagement that contributes to learning about risk; simultaneously, findings suggest that learning can transform beachgoers' intentions and practices at unpatrolled beaches. This paper provides a broadened theoretical and empirical model of community engagement aimed at beach drowning risk prevention via relationship building.