Extension military parent-teen camp experiences: Family resilience building in action
- Ashurst, K., Weisenhorn, D., & Atkinson, T. (2020). Extension military parent-teen camp experiences: Family resilience building in action. Journal of Extension, 58(2), v58-2rb9. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/joe/vol58/iss2/14/
- The Military Teen Adventure Camp (MTAC) is an outdoor adventure program available to Service members, spouses, and their teenage children to strengthen their relationships following deployment. Camps last from three to five days and combine outdoor activities (e.g., rock climbing, whitewater rafting) with skill building activities (e.g., setting realistic goals for achievement in outdoor activities) and family-focused meals to foster family communication and support. Using a sample of 38 Service members and 54 of their teenage children who attended an MTAC in 2018, this study sought to examine how participation in these camps was related to family members’ resilience. Further, teens’ personal and relational skills (i.e., camp connectedness, family citizenship, friendship skills, independence, perceived confidence, problem-solving confidence, responsibility, and teamwork) were examined after camp participation and were compared with a normative sample from the American Camp Association Youth Outcome Battery, a national camp participation database. Participation in MTAC appeared to promote resilience while effects on personal and relational skills varied.
- The purpose of the study addressed in this article was to gather information from military service members and their teenage children attending Extension camping programs together. We used a pretest and a posttest to examine resilience of both groups and compared other postprogram youth outcome measures to a normative sample. We found statistically significant increases in resilience scores for both service member participants and teenage participants as well as elevated youth outcomes in the areas of problem solving and connecting with others. Our results constitute useful information on the value of Extension outdoor and recreational programming for family systems.
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