Enhancing Adolescents’ Environmental Responsibility Through Outdoor Recreation Activities

Spending time outdoors fosters a sense of connectedness and empathy with nature and has a clear effect on attitudes and behaviour towards the environment. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of an outdoor activities intervention program on adolescents’ sense of responsibility towards the environment. Participants included 262 adolescents (135 girls and 127 boys) aged 13-17 years who were divided into experimental (n = 141) and control groups (n = 121). The 15-day outdoor intervention program included trekking, mountain biking, orienteering, archery, ropes courses, canoeing on a lake, via ferrata rock climbing, night hiking, and overnight camping. Participants completed an Environmental Responsibility questionnaire (Zafeiroudi & Hatzigeorgiadis, 2013) before and after participation in the activities program. The questionnaire included five scales that focused on perceptions of information on environmental issues, environmental cognitive and affective beliefs, predisposition for environmental action, and environmentally responsible behaviour. Analysis of variance with repeated measures revealed improved scores amongst adolescents who participated in the intervention program, notably within the specific scales used to evaluate perceived information, affective beliefs, predisposition for individual action, and predisposition for encouraging others. A follow-up analysis of covariance revealed that participants in the experimental group scored higher overall than did those in the control group. Taken together, these findings add to the current literature focused on psychosocial and behavioural mechanisms associated with environmental awareness. Our findings also suggest that outdoor recreational activities may be an effective supplement and a more challenging alternative to programs currently provided by environmental and active leisure associations.

Prejudice Reduction through Shared Adventure: A Qualitative Outcome Assessment of a Multicultural Education Class

This study is a qualitative analysis of student learning outcomes from an experiential multicultural education class at a public university. The class brought together students from diverse backgrounds and used adventure education methods to achieve multicultural education goals. The class combined adventure-based experiences from ropes courses or wilderness trips with community exploration assignments, papers, and class discussions on diversity issues. Students (n = 134) wrote a final reflective essay on the learning experiences from the class. The essays were analyzed using content analysis to assess key learning events and learning outcome themes. Results show positive outcomes in personal identity, group experience, diversity awareness, and prejudice reduction. Students also indicated transfer of learning to nonclassroom contexts. The study reports statistically significant relationships between specific experiential learning events and diversity outcomes.

Are Challenge (Ropes) Courses an Effective Tool? A Meta-Analysis

This study reports the results of a meta-analysis of 44 studies that examined the impacts of participation in challenge (ropes) course activities. Overall, a medium standardized mean difference effect size was found (d = 0.43). Effect sizes were calculated for various study characteristics, including demographics and outcome. Higher effects were found for adult groups (d = 0.80) and for studies measuring family functioning (d = 0.67). Studies with therapeutic (d = 0.53) or developmental foci (d = 0.47) had higher effect sizes than those with educational foci (d = 0.17). Higher effect sizes for group effectiveness (d = 0.62) affirmed the use of challenge course experiences for team-building purposes. Implications for further research include the importance of recording detailed program design information, selecting appropriate instrumentation, and including follow-up data.