Background: Childhood exposure to aquatic environments promotes familiarization, while structured interventions facilitate gradual learning. The Aquaticity Assessment Test (AAT) is a tool used to study this relationship by evaluating aquatic skills through the Aquaticity Score (AS). Aim: To evaluate how previous experience in aquatic environments during childhood and swimming lessons relate to the AS in adults. Methods: Sixty-six adults (34.9 ± 8.2 years) were assessed using the AAT. To verify the effect of three dichotomous experience-related characteristics (yes/no: 1. Did you have aquatic environment experiences during childhood? 2. Have you ever taken swimming lessons? 3. Are you currently practicing?) on aquaticity, independent t-tests were used to compare AS, and Cohen's d effect sizes were calculated to verify the impact of these characteristics. Results: Participants who had swimming practice or aquatic experiences during childhood (n = 49) showed higher AS than those without such experiences (37.0 ± 7.3 vs. 25.5 ± 8.2 points, respectively; p < 0.001; d = 1.48). Participants who had previous swimming training or lessons (n = 55) also showed higher AS than those without previous training or lessons (36.5 ± 7.0 vs. 21.8 ± 8.1 points, respectively; p < 0.001; d = 1.94). No significant difference in AS was observed between participants currently practicing swimming (n = 31) and those not practicing at the time of assessment (32.0 ± 9.4 vs. 35.9 ± 8.4 points, respectively; p = 0.08; d = 0.43). Conclusions: These results suggest that childhood aquatic experiences and previous swimming lessons are associated with higher aquaticity scores in adults. These findings indicate that both early aquatic exposure and structured swimming lessons may contribute to the development of aquatic skills. However, further longitudinal studies are needed to confirm whether these skills are maintained after a pause in swimming practice.
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