| Description |
The present study assessed the contributions a University Collegiate Outdoor Program (UCOP) can make to a college student's perceived physical, social, and emotional health. Currently and collectively, the health of the United States is not making significant, positive strides towards becoming the healthiest population that it could be. This creates a need to assess different ways to examine not just better ways to treat health problems, but different ways to prevent health from becoming poor in the first place. It has been hypothesized and demonstrated to be true, for many decades now, that outdoor recreation is one way to positively contribute to numerous aspects of an individual's health. It is also known that college students often finish their higher education experience less healthy than when they started. The habits that people develop during this time of their lives will stay with them for their entire future. With the above in mind, this thesis studied the equipment rental center, the climbing wall, and the trips program of a UCOP. A two-phase research study was implemented beginning with focus group interviews followed by the distribution of an online survey. A total of 169 students were participants in the study. All had been involved with the UCOP in the previous 3 months. Participants reported on information relating to the three research questions. The questions pertained to their perceived health benefits, if any, as well as the factors of the UCOP that might be contributing the most to their benefits. The hypothesis of this thesis is that all elements of a UCOP (equipment rental center, climbing wall, and trips program) contribute to numerous aspects of a college student's perceived health. In this case, the researcher was investigating physical, social, and emotional health. This hypothesis was supported through both phases of data collection and analysis by using thematic analysis, t-tests, and ANOVAs. Furthermore, the present study determined that the more a student uses a UCOP, the more health benefits they will report. i |
