Leisure Studies Commons^™

The Influence Of Recreation Engagement On Adolescent Health-Risk Behaviors, Krista Thomas

All Dissertations

The number of adolescents who engage in suicidality is staggering. Adolescence is a unique developmental period where engagement in health-risk behaviors is prominent. Factors influencing engagement in suicidality are vast and occur both internally and externally in the adolescent. Substance use during adolescence has shown an association with increased suicidality. Similarly, bullying, both cyberbullying and in-person bullying, have contributed to adolescent suicidality. Alternatively, recreation engagement has yielded benefits in both psychosocial and physical health for adolescents. However, limited research has identified that engaging in recreation can minimize suicidality. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore how substance use, …

Ramble: Travel Journal Application Concept, Christine Elizabeth Curulla

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this project is to provide an easier and more engaging way for study abroad students to document their experiences. I wanted to collect data on the effectiveness of student journaling while abroad, and identify ways to improve the process through a mobile application.

Ramble is a social app I designed that provides a new question or prompt each day to encourage more frequent, fun journaling while traveling, and connection with others at home and abroad. Ramble solves problems that accompany traditional journaling by making the journaling process more accessible and requiring less time from the user.

Spiritual Outcomes Of A Faith-Based Camp Program For Children Of Incarcerated Parents, Raquel T. Ellis, Krystal Hays, Jeff Hamilton, Lemesis J. Reyes

Movement and Being: The Journal of the Christian Society for Kinesiology, Leisure and Sports Studies

Children of incarcerated parents are likely to experience a number of adverse outcomes including poverty, substance abuse, community violence, multiple caregivers, school failure, and justice system involvement (Hairston, 2007; Martin, 2017; Murphey & Cooper, 2015). The experience of having a parent incarcerated, and the negative outcomes associated with it, disproportionately expose these children to adverse childhood events (ACE’s) known to result in higher morbidity and mortality (Turney, 2018). However, spiritual resources, along with engagement with caring adults, can increase a child’s resilience and buffer the impact of these negative outcomes. This exploratory study describes Camp Agape California (CAC), a faith-based …

Trusting Your Bearings: Outdoor Navigation And The Link Between Perceived Competence, Actual Skill, And Flow State In The Adirondack Region Of New York, Daria Stacy

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived competence and flow theory in the activity of outdoor navigation. This relationship was examined at beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expert skill levels of navigation, targeting a population in the Adirondack Region due to its challenging, thickly forested terrain. The study used a multi-method approach encompassing both quantitative and qualitative data. Surveys were administered to examine beginner, intermediate, and advanced navigators following a formal navigation course at SUNY Cortland’s Outdoor Education Practicum at Raquette Lake or an Advanced Map and Compass Bushwhack Course or Map and Compass Fundamentals Course …

Mapping The Tourism Value Chain For Fair-Trade And Tourism Handicraft Clusters In Tanzania, Peter M. Ezra

All Dissertations

The role of tourism industry as an agent to foster community development, and as a means for poverty reduction in lesser economically developed countries (LEDCs), has been widely addressed by the literature. However, critics have pointed out that tourism has failed to promote local development and improve the livelihoods of local communities in LEDCs due to unequal trading and neoliberal economic policies resulting to economic leakage. The introduction of fair-trade movements is a response to a call to redress these unequal trading and neoliberal economic policies between the Global North and Global South. Fair-trade is considered one of the ethical …

My Journey To Create A Space For Young Adults To Grow In Community, Chelsea Simmeth

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project focuses on the development of a safe space for young adults to come together, create community and engage in activities. There is a gap in college-age students’ ability to find community outside the university. This project focuses on creating a place where they would be able to meet new people, play sports, and board games, and do arts and crafts. The development of marketing strategies, event planning checklists, and locations for holding events are outlined for the Young Adults (YA)- UNITE (Upbeat, New, and Inviting Transformational Environment) program.

Body Appreciation, Gender, Motivation, And Competitive Success In Competition Climbing, Marissa Frost

All Theses

The focus of this study was to examine the relation between the constructs of body appreciation, gender, motivation, and competitive success in competition climbers. To gather data for this study, a Qualtrics survey was created and distributed amongst the competition climbing community through USA Climbing’s Facebook page and member email list. Data was then collected from competition climbers between the ages of thirteen and sixty over 45 days in the winter of 2017. A total of 236 competition climbers participated in the survey and 202 of those responses were used in this study. Body appreciation in this study was analyzed …

Queering The Outdoors: Lgbtq2sia+ Identity In Outdoor Recreation, Sandra Heath

All Dissertations

Objective. The purpose of this project was to learn about the lived experiences of outdoor professionals who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Two Spirited, Pansexual, Intersex, Asexual, Plus (LGBTQ2SIA+ or LGBTQ+). In this study, we are gifted with stories that delve into queer identity in the outdoors, with the understanding that not all LGBTQ+ individuals experience the outdoors in the same way. Specifically, this study considers these experiences across temporal dimension of childhood and adulthood, the defining event(s) of coming out, the role of community, and reflections on outdoor recreation professions. Methods. A critical narrative approach was used …

An Examination Of Hierarchical Leisure Constraint Effects On Sport Participation And Sport Preference From Adolescence Into Early Adulthood, Crystal A. Fields

Honors College Theses

The aim of this study was to understand how hierarchical leisure constraints prohibited sport participation and influenced sport preferences during individuals’ adolescent years, and how these constraint effects may change during their early twenties. A sequential quantitative-qualitative mixed methods design was employed to (1) identify general changes in constraint effects on participation (i.e., quantitative) and then (2) better understand how sport preferences may be impacted by these constraint effects on participation (i.e., qualitative). A sample (n=70) of female (n= 26) and male (n=44) Georgia residents between the ages of 20-25 representing various ethnicities, backgrounds, and income levels participated in the …

Fishing Without A Scale, Kaleb Miller, Luke Lemaitre

Student Scholarship - College of Business

Our study looks at different species of fish and uses their cross-length and volume to find correlations in weight among the different fish. The different type of fish that we compare include perch, pike, parkki, whitefish, bream, roach, and smelt. The dependent variable that we are using is weight. Once we predict the weight of the individual fish, we will also compare that weight to other fish species. The result of the data are that there is linearity, where the adjusted R squared is between 0.94 and 0.97, depending on our model. Therefore, 94 to 97 percent of the variability …

Using A Data-Driven Approach To Examine Facility Use Definitions In Campus Recreation, Sera Janson Zegre, Rodney P. Hughes, Andrew M. Darling, Craig R. Decker

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Existing research in campus recreation establishes a relationship between facility use and academic outcomes, but published studies define users differently. In response to inconsistent definitions of participants in campus recreation, this study uses a data-driven approach to compare facility use definitions. Authors illustrate the implications of choosing different participant definitions for relationships between campus recreation and two undergraduate academic outcomes, first-year retention and first-year cumulative grade point average (GPA). This study uses data from a three-year timeframe, linking sources of data on students’ recreation facility use, academic outcomes, and student records. Authors provide a summary of previous definitions, results from …

Active Leisure And Ageing In Rural Ireland: Exploring Perceptions And Motivations To Facilitate And Promote Meaningful Physical Activity, Angie Hartnett, Catherine Gorman

Articles

The life expectancy of the world population is increasing and the art of aging well is of global interest (European Commission, n.d.). In Ireland, the number of people over the age of 60 will increase from 1.1 million currently, to 2.44 million by 2041, constituting nearly one third of its total population (Institute of Public Health, 2018). Despite the benefits of regular physical activity (pa), particularly with the frail (≥65 years and requiring a walking aid), rates of participation remain low (Colley et al., 2011). Health concerns raised, such as smoking and weight issues, are more prevalent in this cohort …

The Ethics Of Medical Voluntourism: The Conceptualization And Management Of ‘Doing Harm’ Within The Business, Katelyn Dohler

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Although medical voluntourism programs are rapidly growing in popularity, deep ethical controversies overly the industry. In particular, understanding how the field of medical voluntourism follows a business model sheds insight on the sources of tension and conflicts of interest that can arise within organizations and the sector as a whole. However, understanding the roles of individual motivations and societal pressures in the development of these ethical controversies is relatively unexplored.

Through an inductive thematic analysis of data gathered from literature review and expert interviews, this project investigates these driving factors behind the rapidly growing business, how these driving factors contribute …

An Importance-Performance Analysis Of Local And Destination Visitors To Monocacy National Battlefield, Mckenzie Mosher, Colin Mccormack, Caleb Scruggs, Chris Zajchowski, Jessica Fefer

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The purpose of this study was to understand the evolving visitor experience at Monocacy National Battlefield (MONO) in Fredrick, Maryland and, specifically, the way this National Park Service site serves both its’ destination and local visitors. Using an Importance-Performance Analysis, segmented by visitors’ county of residence, we demonstrate key differences in the visitor experience across visitor type. Following survey design with MONO managers and approval from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, onsite sampling occurred over 21 visitor contact days, stratified by day of the week and time of day, in summer and fall of 2021. 469 visitors were …

Socio-Cultural And Economic Impacts Of Religious Festivals On Sustainable Local Community Livelihoods In Kerala: The Case Of Palakkad, Dr. Bindu V T Nair, Aiswarya Babu N

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Festivals depict the heritage, culture, and traditions of a particular region. They create a state of exhilaration and enthusiasm. Kerala is a state in southwest India with its own distinct culture and traditions. The state is also known for its religious pluralism. This study attempts to understand the perceived impact of religious festivals on the local community livelihoods in Palakkad, a district in central Kerala. Twelve temples in which religious festivals are held annually, with attendance in the range of thousands, were selected. The selected temples are famous for hosting specific religious festivals which attract a large number of visitors, …

The Effect Of Task And Environment Constraints On Aquatic Locomotor Behavior: Qualitative Data Analysis, Ernani Xavier Filho, Edison J. Manoel

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Many constraints (environmental, organismic, and task) act on all patterns of motor coordination, although their effects on swimming is less well understood. To this end, we carried out the current study with fifty-six participants, ages ranging from six to twelve years. The experimental tasks were created from the original task in which changes in task speed and environmental context were manipulated. Four aspects in the results were notable: a) a main trend was one of performance with the same developmental status among the tasks; b) when behaviour changed, this occurred due to environmental constraints, leading to more rudimentary patterns of …

Employment With The Northwest Territories Aquatics Program: A Significant Life Event?, Sebastien Denize, Audrey R. Giles

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

For over 60 years, the Northwest Territories Aquatics Program (NWTAP) has employed university students from southern Canada with little to no exposure to northern Canada to run seasonal swimming pools and waterfronts in isolated northern communities. In this article, we examine the impact that working for this program had on nine former employees’ lives and whether or not working for the NWTAP could be categorized as a significant life experience. We used thematic analysis of the data from retrospective semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires and identified four themes: (1) employment by the NWTAP enhanced the employees’ self-confidence, independence, and self-efficacy; …

Content, Construct, And Criterion Validity, Reliability, And Objectivity For Aquatic Readiness Assessment For Brazilian Children, Nadia C. Valentini, Keila R G Pereira, Glauber C. Nobre

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

The Aquatic Readiness Assessment (ARA) is an assessment instrument for measuring children's aquatic readiness. The objective of the study was to translate the English version into Portuguese and to investigate the content, construct, and criterion validity as well as the reliability and rater objectivity of the ARA for Brazilian children. Twenty-three professionals and 464 children, newborn to 13 years-old participated in the study. We found strong content (94% to 100% of judges’ agreement) and criterion validity, internal consistency (α from .96 to .97), and inter-rater objectivity (ICC from .81 to .98), and test-retest reliability (ICC from .94 to .98). Appropriate …

Ability Of Lifeguards To Detect Submerged Manikins In Public Swimming Pool Environments, Élie Vignac, Pascal Lebihain, Brice Guignard, Natacha Heutte, Loic Le Minor, Bastien Soulé

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

To prevent drownings in public swimming pools (PSP), French legislation requires constant surveillance by state-certified lifeguards. While previous research showed that surveillance was not always effective, this article focuses on efficiency of surveillance when it is effective. We evaluated the ability of 4 volunteer professional lifeguards to detect a submerged manikin under controlled conditions. One hundred and eight (108) tests were carried out in 2 PSP. Four variables were controlled (i.e., distance, depth, surveillance station, attendance). Our results showed that rapid drowning detection was not exclusively linked to the individual detection capabilities of a lifeguard, but rather it emerged from …

Effective Lifeguard Scanning: A Review, Stephen J. Langendorfer Ph.D., Francesco (Frank) A. Pia Ph.D., Angela K. Beale-Tawfeeq Ph.D.

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

The purpose of this scientific review was to address the question of what evidence-based visual surveillance/scanning skills exist in the peer-reviewed scholarly literature. It is well known that lifeguards spend a majority of their on-duty time surveying bathers and swimmers in the water. Lifeguards need to quickly distinguish among swimmers in distress and drowning persons from other bathers in order to rapidly come to their aid to prevent drowning. To be able to accomplish this task, Signal Detection Theory reveals that lifeguards need specific and extensive training in identifying the behavioral patterns associated with drowning persons and swimmers in distress. …