Wilderness adventure therapy effects on the mental health of youth participants

Autor: Daniel J. Bowen, James T. Neill, Simon J.R. Crisp
Rok vydání: 2016
Předmět:
Program evaluation
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Youth
Adolescent
Social Psychology
media_common.quotation_subject
Strategy and Management
Adventure therapy
Emotions
Geography
Planning and Development
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Intervention (counseling)
medicine
Humans
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
030212 general & internal medicine
Wilderness
Business and International Management
Psychiatry
Child
media_common
Behavior
05 social sciences
Australia
Public Health
Environmental and Occupational Health
Youth development
Resilience
Psychological
Mental health
Confidence interval
Self Concept
Psychotherapy
Mental Health
Female
Family Relations
Psychology
Positive Youth Development
Psychosocial
050104 developmental & child psychology
Clinical psychology
Program Evaluation
Zdroj: Evaluation and Program Planning. 58:49-59
ISSN: 0149-7189
DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2016.05.005
Popis: Adventure therapy offers a prevention, early intervention, and treatment modality for people with behavioural, psychological, and psychosocial issues. It can appeal to youth-at-risk who are often less responsive to traditional psychotherapeutic interventions. This study evaluated Wilderness Adventure Therapy (WAT) outcomes based on participants’ pre-program, post-program, and follow-up responses to self-report questionnaires. The sample consisted of 36 adolescent out-patients with mixed mental health issues who completed a 10-week, manualised WAT intervention. The overall short-term standardised mean effect size was small, positive, and statistically significant (0.26), with moderate, statistically significant improvements in psychological resilience and social self-esteem. Total short-term effects were within age-based adventure therapy meta-analytic benchmark 90% confidence intervals, except for the change in suicidality which was lower than the comparable benchmark. The short-term changes were retained at the three-month follow-up, except for family functioning (significant reduction) and suicidality (significant improvement). For participants in clinical ranges pre-program, there was a large, statistically significant reduction in depressive symptomology, and large to very large, statistically significant improvements in behavioural and emotional functioning. These changes were retained at the three-month follow-up. These findings indicate that WAT is as effective as traditional psychotherapy techniques for clinically symptomatic people. Future research utilising a comparison or wait-list control group, multiple sources of data, and a larger sample, could help to qualify and extend these findings.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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