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Healthy Eating And Physical Activity Programming At Overnight Summer Camps, Ellen King, Kendra Liddicoat, Rebecca L. Franzen, Annie Wetter

Research in Outdoor Education

Overnight summer camps have previously been overlooked as settings for healthy eating and physical activity programming; however, recent summer camp research has begun to examine how summer camp programming can help fight childhood obesity. The purpose of this research was to identify and examine the efforts that Wisconsin overnight summer camps are taking to support campers in meeting national dietary and physical activity guidelines. Data were collected through in-person or phone interviews with 13 directors and owners of American Camp Association (ACA) accredited camps and were analyzed using a conventional content analysis and inductive thematic analysis approach. Results indicated that …

“There Was More Out There Than Our Street”: Exploring Summer Camp Programming As A Context To Foster Social Capital And Civic Engagement After Camp, Tracy L. Mainieri, Denise M. Anderson

Research in Outdoor Education

The social capital and civic engagement literature indicate a similar concern: Americans today are less connected to their communities than in the recent past. The purpose of this study was to explore intentional summer camp programming as a possible avenue to engendering social capital and civic engagement in campers' home communities. Eight campers and their parents were interviewed at least three months after the campers participated in a structured camp program designed to increase campers' civic engagement and social capital. Campers experienced post-camp gains in their motivation for civic engagement and their bonding and bridging social networks; however, not all …

Exploring The Social Impacts Of A Summer Camp For Youth With Tourette Syndrome, Michael Griswold, C. Boyd Hegarty, Chris Harrist, Nate Trauntvein, David Griswold

Research in Outdoor Education

Although a wealth of research exists documenting the positive social outcomes promoted by summer camps, research specifically examining youths with Tourette Syndrome (TS) within the camp context is lacking. This study utilized a phenomenological approach to explore the social impacts of a weeklong camp specifically for youths with TS, involving focus groups with 18 campers aged 10–16, interviews with 10 staff members, and participant observations compiled by the researcher. Multiple themes and sub-themes concerning the social impacts of the camp experience were identified, including (a) relatedness (not alone and self-assurance); (b) social development (friendships, optimism, educational experience, and bullying); (c) …

An Evaluation Of The Impact Of A One-Week Summer Camp Experience On Participants' Social Skill Development, Paul Shirilla, Michael Gass, Chris Conlon

Research in Outdoor Education

Social skill development is emerging as an important issue for educators and practitioners in their work with adolescent youth. Within the summer camp industry, youth development researchers are beginning to focus more intentionally on the ability of summer camp programming to develop social skill capacity among its participants (Thurber, Scanlin, Scheuler, & Henderson, 2007). While research in camp settings has been occurring for several decades, much of the inquiry has been descriptive in nature (Henderson, Thurber, Scanlin, & Bialeschki, 2007) or focused on individual psychological traits such as self-esteem and self-concept.(Gillis & Speelman, 2007). More recently, however, social skill development …

The Relationship Between Summer Camp Employment And Emotional Intelligence, Jeffrey A. Jacobs, Leo H. Mcavoy, Andrew J. Bobilya

Research in Outdoor Education

Camping professionals have long claimed that summer camp employment provides camp staff with a number of benefits. The summer camp staff experience has been shown to have a positive effect on the staff members' personal, social and emotional growth (Bialeschki, Henderson, & Dahowski, 1998; DeGraff & Glover, 2002). Yet, some influentia. others such as parents and human resources professionals have questioned the wisdom of a college student spending a summer of "fun in the sun", working at a summer camp for low pay.

The concept of emotional intelligence has been recently gaining favor in the human resource management arena, and …

Factors Affecting The Personal And Social Outcomes Of Organized Camping, Marta K. Moorman

Research in Outdoor Education

Summer camp holds a special place in the minds of children. thoughts of camp bring images of swimming, hiking, laughing and making new friends. According to Dustiri (1989), the secret of organized camping is that camp is on a finite, human scale. Anyone can make a difference in their own comer of the world. Another important aspect of camp (Dustin, 1994) is creating a place for children to be children, not ''minia­ture adults" (p.28). Chenery (1984) sees the essential contribution of camp as. providing children with a space for spiritual development. Many factors could influence what sort of experiences campers …