Across the nation, many outdoor adventure education programs are becoming shorter in duration. The purpose of this study was to determine if instructors alter targeted course outcomes and course processes because of shorter amounts of student field time. Data collection involved interviews with staff from the Colorado Outward Bound School. Results…

Background: Key findings from the literature on treatment interventions with youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) indicate that the most successful approaches allow frequent opportunities for uncontrived social interactions and are customizable to the needs of individuals and the group. Adventure therapy meets these criteria while providing…

This paper presents an account of a research project that explored the experiences of adolescents struggling with behavioral and emotional issues, who participated in a 14-day adventure therapy program in Australia referred to by the pseudonym, "Onward Adventures". All participants of this program over the age of 16 who completed within…

This article examines the impact of an outdoor orientation program (OOP) on a cohort of first-year university students who participated in a canoe trip facilitated by peer leaders. The curriculum included training for outdoor skills and transitional guidance to university life (i.e., strategies for time management, critical thinking, becoming…

The present study sought to examine the potential for resilience to be enhanced in a group of youth participating in a developmental voyage, and to identify the factors that contribute to increased resilience following the voyage. Two studies are reported. Study 1 revealed that voyage participants experienced increased resilience over the course…

During the past 50 years, wilderness and adventure programs have been utilized as a therapeutic intervention for adolescents involved in America's juvenile justice systems. The program that is the focus of this research project is the Wilderness Endeavors Program, a correctional wilderness and adventure program for youthful offenders in the state…

Social skill development is emerging as an important issue for educators and practitioners in their work with adolescent youth. This presentation will use the results from two ongoing research projects to examine the relationship between adventure-based programming and social skill development in the lives of diverse youth. The first project is…

Beyond the Limits, a program of the Wicomico County school system (Maryland), conducts 1-day adventure experiences that use a challenge ropes course and classroom experiential activities to develop students' intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. Before the experience, all participants agree to the "full value commitment," which is a…

A study examined the effect of adventure programs on participants' self-efficacy immediately following an adventure program experience and whether increased self-efficacy transferred to the participants' daily lives after the adventure experience. Sixty-eight participants aged 18-29 in a series of 21-day Outward Bound courses were given a pretest…

Hierarchical linear modeling (HIM) is an approach used in data analysis to better understand how program outcomes are affected by the "nested" nature of data collected in many studies. An outcome can be considered variables such as an individual's self-efficacy, social skills, or more targeted outcomes such as demonstrated reading and mathematical…

It is commonly claimed that outdoor adventure programmes produce positive changes in participants by exposing them to adventure activities designed to encourage self-discovery and character building. Previous studies have focused on the impact of rehabilitative adventure therapy programmes and adventure education programmes for male dominated or…

For the purpose of this research project an outdoor education program was developed for students (aged between 10-14) displaying signs of emotional difficulties in engaging with school and family life. The project investigated the effective use of an Integrated Adventure Based Educational program delivered in a complimentary milieu of classroom,…

A British summer adventure education program aims to re-engage high risk secondary students into society. A qualitative evaluation found that although the participants had fun, there was not enough focus on transferring skills to daily life. Because of the many factors affecting the experience, any difference made in the lives of the youths was…

This practicum addressed the attitudes and behaviors of 10 adolescents with severe behavioral and emotional problems participating in a cooperative job training program. The intervention used an adventure approach to help the students replace aggression and misconduct with job-related social skills. A needs assessment was conducted to identify…