| Description |
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of activity staging strategies designed to target the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness on valenced intentionality toward nature in teen-age male students enrolled in a residential treatment program. Procedures involved staging snowshoe outings for male students, age 14-17, enrolled in a residential treatment program in Salt Lake City, Utah. Residents in the program struggle with behavioral, emotional, learning, and substance abuse difficulties. Staff members of the weekend recreation program were trained in elfdetermination theory and facilitation of the staged experience. The snowshoe outing was designed and staged in order to target the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness as put forth by self-determination theory. Throughout the staged experience participants were asked to repeatedly rate their judgment of nature and feelings of vitality using an 14-item semantic differential scale which pits adjective pairs against one another to measure meaning (e.g., good.. .bad, like.. .dislike, repelling.. .attracting). Comparisons were made between treatment and nontreatment groups. Results of the data analysis support the hypotheses; a comparison of means suggests that all three activity staging techniques (environmental education lesson, choice activity, and relatedness activity) significantly elevated scores on both valenced intentionality and vitality. Change values (R ) for the environmental education lesson on valenced intentionality (.04) and vitality (< .001), choice activity on valenced intentionality (.04) and vitality (.009), and the relatedness activity on valenced intentionality (.03) and vitality (.00) suggest a weak effect size. R change values for the treatment order variable on valenced intentionality (0.1) and vitality (.06) suggest a strong relationship between the dependent variables and the order in which participants received treatment. Practitioners can use these results to create for efficacious and meaningful outing programs for youth in a residential treatment setting. Future research can explore more effective and efficient ways to strengthen the relationships supported in the present study. v |
