Objective: For children under 15 years, drowning accounts for higher worldwide mortality rates than any other injury source. Our aim was to determine the predictors of parents accessing learn‐to‐swim classes for their children and whether parents’ overall motivation contributed to the explanation of behavioural intention. Using an extended version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), incorporating past behaviour and parents’ health motivation, barriers and benefits associated with parents’ intentions to enrol their child/children in learn‐to‐swim classes were investigated.

Method: Parents (N = 114) with school children in Kindergarten up to Year 6 were recruited from Australian rural communities (mean age [M] = 38.2 years; standard deviation [ SD ] = 7.0). They completed questionnaires including demographic information, swimming ability, direct and belief‐based measures of the TPB, past behaviour, and health motivation. Belief‐based measures were derived from a pilot study following Ajzen's (1991) guidelines. This was followed by administration of the main questionnaire.

Results: Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that attitudes and past behaviour, respectively, predicted 55.6% and 4.5% of variance in parental intentions. Multivariate analyses of variance highlighted a number of beliefs that could be targeted in campaigns to encourage parents to involve their children in swimming classes.

Conclusions: Recommendations for campaigns targeting this issue include: (a) induce positive attitudes towards enrolling children in swimming lessons and (b) target parents of children not previously enrolled in swimming lessons to influence their future intentions, with a particular focus on attitudes and changing beliefs about behaviours relevant to swimming lessons for their children.