What Is the Therapeutic Value of Camping for Emotionally Disturbed Girls?

Abstract

Therapeutic camping in a wilderness or similar natural environment has led to personal, social, emotion, and cognitive benefits for emotionally disturbed girls. While emotionally disturbed boys derive similar benefits, there appears to be some evidence for differential effects of therapeutic camping based on gender. Criticisms of past research include the lack of control groups, random assignment of subjects, valid and reliable measures, statistical analyses, and long-term follow-up studies. Suggestions for the future include: (1) the development and analysis of more therapeutic camping programs for girls in same-gender and mixed-gender groups, (2) increased use of true experimental or quasi-experimental designs, (3) more research into the generalizability of therapeutic camping benefits to other populations and non-wilderness settings, (4) systematic research into what aspects of camping are therapeutic, and (5) the development of community-based programs and services incorporating those aspects of the camping programs found to be therapeutic.