Browsing by Subject "Wilderness Therapy"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item The relationship between newcomer's expectations of job demand stressors, job satisfaction and psychological well-being: a study of field instructors in wilderness therapy.(2009-10) Marchand, GenevièveIn the outdoor behavioral healthcare industry, the largest group of employees is undeniably the field instructors that operate on a daily basis with the clients. These individuals spend extended periods of time in remote wilderness areas, sometimes up to 21 days, often making on the spot decisions to assure the safety and well-being of adolescents struggling with behavioral and/or emotional issues. Previous research has raised some questions concerning burnout (Kirby, 2006) and job demands (Marchand, Russell & Cross, 2009) with possible relations to retention of field instructors. The rapid turnover of these individuals may be linked to unrealistic expectations and inadequate training concerning the job demands of this type of work. A mixed-method design was utilized to evaluate expected levels of job demand stressors, current job satisfaction, psychological well-being, and elements of the initial field instructor training, job choice and organizational choice. Eight North American wilderness therapy programs distributed a questionnaire to all their field instructors yielding 129 participants. A retrospective pre-test was used to evaluate expectation levels of job demand stressors, while job satisfaction and psychological well-being were measured with the Job Satisfaction Survey and the PGWB-S. Qualitative questions also inquired about the most important elements of field instructor initial training, as well as reasons for job choice and organizational choice in wilderness therapy. A MANOVA indicated an interaction between job demand stressors and job satisfaction, where field instructors who had underestimated their job demand stressors had lower job satisfaction, mainly in the areas of pay, promotion, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, coworkers and communication. Findings also revealed that field instructors either underestimated or overestimated over half of the job demand stressors they had retrospectively evaluated. MANOVA was also used to evaluate the interaction between job satisfaction and tenure. Results indicated that as tenure length increased job satisfaction lowered, mainly in the areas of promotion, contingent rewards, operating conditions and communication. When asked about working in wilderness therapy, field instructors reported altruistic reasons as the most important reason for doing this type of work. Specific program characteristics were most often reported as the reason why they chose their specific organization. Information concerning the initial training indicated that over 75% of field instructors had participated in training with an average of 7 days. Field instructors thought that therapeutic and behavioral management skills were the most important element of their initial training. Evidences from this study lead to believe that field instructors could benefit from having a better understanding of the job demands of wilderness therapy. While job satisfaction of field instructor was high and psychological well-being was generally positive, field instructor showed a decline in job satisfaction when they had mostly underestimated their job demands and has they increased days of field experience.Item Wilderness adventure programming as an intervention for youthful offenders: self-efficacy, resilience, and hope for the future.(2009-09) Walsh, Michael AllenA review of the literature on positive youth development clearly identifies demonstrated empirical relationships between perceived self competence, adolescent resilience, and hope, which are theorized in a strengths-based focus on youth offenders to be predictors of reduced recidivism. This evaluation of outcomes associated with participation in the Wilderness Endeavors (WE) Program of Thistledew seeks to test this theory that individuals who participate in WE will develop enhanced levels of perceived self competence, resiliency, and hope for the future, and therefore, result in a reduction of recidivism. The specific aims guiding this exploratory study include: 1) to establish a matched-pair control group using youth who were not referred to Thistledew, but which were referred from the same county court system to a Minnesota Department of Correction (MDOC) disposition or other programs, by using as matching variables age, age of first offense, type of committing offense, and risk assessments as determined by the Youth Level of Service Inventory (YSLI) used by the referring Youth Probation Officer (if possible given county court use of the YSLI from which a control group will be drawn); 2) to assess the baseline scores of the youth participant's on the following measures: a) Perceived-Self Competence (Self Efficacy), b) Hope, and c) Adolescent Resiliency; and to assess post-program scores on Perceived-Self Competence, Hope, and Adolescent Resiliency, and 3) to conduct a six-month follow-up assessment that will assess both treatment and control youth re-offense rates, including the nature and degree of the re-offense. The The paired t tests revealed that self efficacy and hope scores showed significant changes from pretest to posttest, suggesting that the Wilderness Endeavors Program had a significant positive effect on participant's self-efficacy and hope for the future. The non parametric test (McNemar) utilized to investigate the four hypotheses related to Wilderness Endeavors Program participation on the future offending behaviors (recidivism) of participants revealed that there were no significant differences in recidivism rates, or new program placements, between the treatment and control groups. Furthermore, involvement in school and employment were not significantly associated with recidivism rates in both treatment and control groups. The binary logistic regression showed that higher levels of hope were associated with those Wilderness Endeavors Program participants who did not recidivate, while changes in self-efficacy and resilience scores had no association with recidivism. Finally, the three demographic variables that are supported in the literature as being strong predictors of recidivism for juvenile offenders revealed only YLSI scores were associated with recidivism; those individuals who did not recidivate were more likely to have a lower risk score. Gender and age of first offense had weak or no associations with either group.