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 |
Externí odkaz: |