Mike Melenchuk, Lifesaving Society, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada
Objective
Beach Captains set the tone for their lifeguards. During the season, new recruits look to their leader for behavioural norms and then adopt them into their own behaviours. This preliminary study explores the questions of whether female and male Beach Captains instil different behavioural norms in their lifeguard teams. Data on rescues, first aid, and interventions from a Canadian Lifeguard service was collected from annual reports from 2001 through to 2022. This included data from 26 different sites representing both waterfront and ocean beaches. To supplement this, staff lists from the same time frame were consulted to determine the gender of each Beach Captain.
Methods
We used a t-test with independent samples to determine if there was a difference in the means of lifeguard activities. The data removed sites that were in operation for less than five years and sites where the gender or identity of the Beach Captain could not be determined. We also choose to analyze the number of actions completed by lifeguards and the activities calculated per capita to remove the variability between sites of different sizes.
Findings
The data contained 191 sites led by males and 225 sites with female Beach Captains. The t-test of independence found the that null hypothesis was accepted for first aid and rescues; simply put, there was no difference between the reported incidences by male and female leadership. This is not very surprising since these activities are usually in response to activities the public undertakes and lifeguards respond to them.
The t-test found that there was a significant difference (95% confidence interval) in means between male and female leadership when it came to interventions. Overall, the sites led by female Beach Captains saw over 30% more interventions per capita than those sites with male Beach Captains.
Conclusion
As stated, this is a preliminary study that identifies a significant difference in the behaviours of lifeguards based on the gender of leadership. However, more study needs to be done to determine if there are training interventions that may equalize the performance of staff year over year.