BACKGROUND: Drowning prevention education has often relied on fear appeals. However, Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) suggests that protective behavior is determined by two cognitive pathways: Threat Appraisal (fear, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility) and Coping Appraisal (perceived response efficacy and self-efficacy). From a PMT perspective, effective safety education should strengthen coping processes in addition to raising threat awareness. This study examined whether incorporating a life jacket buoyancy experience into inquiry-based river safety education differentially influences PMT constructs. METHODS: Participants were first-year Japanese junior high school students (Grade 7) who attended a river-based safety lesson as part of their school curriculum. Students engaged in group-based inquiry activities in which they predicted and investigated river characteristics, including water depth, flow velocity, water temperature, and riverbed conditions, through direct observation and measurement. One cohort (2025) received inquiry-based learning combined with a structured life jacket floating experience (Experience group, n = 34), whereas the previous cohort (2024) received the same inquiry-based lesson without the floating activity (Inquiry-only group, n = 48). Self-report measures corresponding to PMT variables were collected at three time points: before the lesson (Pre), immediately after (Post 1), and 100 days later (Post 2). A 2 (instructional condition) × 3 (time) mixed-design ANOVA was conducted. RESULTS: Significant main effects of time were found for fear and perceived susceptibility, indicating short-term increases after the lesson. However, these effects diminished over time and did not differ by instructional condition. In contrast, perceived response efficacy showed a significant interaction between condition and time, suggesting that the buoyancy experience selectively strengthened coping-related cognition. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide theoretical support for PMT-informed safety education that emphasizes coping appraisal rather than relying primarily on fear arousal. Threat-related cognitions increased immediately after the lesson but were less clearly maintained after 100 days, suggesting that coping-related cognition may play an important role in supporting longer-term safety awareness.
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