The history of parks and recreation is deeply rooted in child's play. From Joseph Lee's writings about the developmental benefits of child's play at the beginning of the 20th century to the establishment of the University of Illinois's Motor Performance and Play Research Laboratory in the 1960s and 1970s, child's play has been a central focus of…

Ecologists have long theorized about humans' psychological relationship to the natural world. The importance of feeling connected to nature is a theme in the writing of ecologists (Leopold, 1949; Orr, 1994; Roszak, 1995). They have argued that this connection to nature is a key component of fostering ecological behavior. In a meta-analysis of the…

Service learning is becoming a more utilized method of instruction in collegiate settings, and holds the potential to provide a deeper, more transferable meaning of course material for students. The purpose of this research was to examine if therapeutic recreation (TR) concentration students perceived service learning to be more personally and…

An analysis of pedagogical expert reviews at children's therapeutic recreation camps in Novosibirsk Region shows that it is necessary to implement an expert review system that plays a supporting and developmental role. Such a system should allow teams of teachers to submit their work to expert review and to move forward by reflecting on their…

Critically examining common statistical approaches and their strengths and weaknesses is an important step in advancing recreation and leisure sciences. To continue this critical examination and to inform methodological decision making, this study compared three approaches to determine how alternative approaches may result in contradictory…

The Unified Core is an innovative approach to higher education that blends content through linked courses within a major to create a community of learners. This article offers the theoretical background for the approach, describes the implementation, and offers suggestions to educators who would like to design their own version of this innovative…

Beyond the standard definitions found in the dictionary, words commonly used in the recreation field have subtle, yet powerful connotations of which senders and receivers of information may not be consciously aware. These words elicit different conscious and subconscious reactions that likely bear significant consequences for recreation agencies…

Rural community colleges have an often understated impact on the communities they serve, especially in regard to their role in developing the identity of individuals. The ability of the rural community college to influence individual identity development is often exasperated due to the challenges associated with rural American life. The role of…

At the beginning of the 20th Century, collegiate campus recreation programs were moved from student controlled entities and placed under the supervision of academic or athletic departments (Milton, 2008a). As such programs grew and became more popular among the general student populations on America's college campuses, administrative oversight was…

Identity research has focused primarily on outcomes associated with identity formation. Far less attention, however, has been given to understanding the facilitating contextual elements of this process. This qualitative study examined a context, a 2-week adventure recreation program for youth, quantitatively shown in previous research to have…

Modern American society faces challenges that are much different from those that the early pioneers of American play face. Play deprivation, or lack of play, is the result of children's unwillingness to choose free and spontaneous outdoor play such as that which occurs in parks and other natural settings. A lack of play in natural settings leads…

Youth are often the primary group for parks and recreation organizations, yet recreation professionals are often not adequately prepared in the principles and practices of youth development. Similarly, youth workers outside the recreation field often lack information on basic recreation program design and activity leadership. Improving access to…

Sports participation can result in strong associations with the athlete role for participants. While strong athletic identity can have positive implications, it can also create vulnerability to emotional difficulty following exit from sport (Brewer, 1993). Exit from sport is inevitable, resulting from a wide range of sources such as injury, aging,…

RURAL YOUTH WHO ARE MOVING TO URBAN AREAS ARE NOT PREPARED TO PARTICIPATE IN URBAN TYPES OF RECREATION PROGRAMS. THE RECREATION SKILLS OF THOSE WHO HAVE LEFT THE FARM BUT ARE STILL IN RURAL SETTINGS DO NOT MATCH THE URBAN OPPORTUNITIES REACHING OUT TO THEM. THOSE STILL ON THE FARMS ARE GETTING RECREATION IDEAS THROUGH MASS MEDIA WITHOUT FINDING…

A recreational voucher system can be a mechanism for increasing the responsiveness of the provider of recreational goods and services to consumers, particularly low income consumers. (RC)