Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management

Committee Chair/Advisor

Barry Garst

Committee Member

Theresa Melton

Committee Member

Lori Dickes

Committee Member

Joel Williams

Abstract

Public policies are invaluable for shaping the distribution and regulation of societal structures, particularly in domains related to children and adolescents. More specifically, within summer camps, a predominant youth-serving setting, policies are integral to the provision of health and safety for youth and young adults before-, during-, and after-camp operations. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, however, youth-serving settings have taken on supporting the mental, emotional, and social health (MESH) needs of youth at an exponential rate. Yet, few intermediaries in the MESH and summer camp spaces have developed policies, standards, or practices to better support youth and young adults in these settings. For this reason, very little research exists on how these policies function within the summer camp industry. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to examine the landscape, presence, implementation, and variability of MESH policies within the camp industry to identify evidence-based practices and areas for improvement in supporting youth and young adults. To first understand the presence of camp health care policies in the literature, a rapid systematic review was conducted to document the landscape of camp health care policy guidance in the summer camp industry. Findings from this review revealed a strong presence of policies related to immunizations and annual health reviews, with few policies related to MESH. Given that MESH-related policies are not extensively documented in the literature, semi-structured interviews were conducted with camp directors and behavioral health managers to explore the extent of MESH policies and their implementation. Interview data were analyzed using two implementation science frameworks to provide a structured lens for what implementation outcomes are present with respect to MESH policy implementation and why they are occurring. Informed by results from the rapid review and interview insights into the embedded nature of MESH policies and practices within camp operations, this dissertation also proposed a heuristic for organizational readiness to help identify the structural components needed to better facilitate and support the implementation of MESH policies and practices. This adapted heuristic offers an in-depth consideration of concepts that may vary across camp organizations in terms of their readiness to engage in MESH innovations, such as adopting policies and practices. Collectively, this dissertation offers a sound contribution to the literature on MESH policies, practices, and implementation across the summer camp industry. Implications from this work identify several avenues for future research, including additional evaluation of implementation science frameworks within the camp setting, as well as providing practitioners with promising practices for MESH implementation. Most notably, this dissertation provides a timely evaluation of MESH-related work within the summer camp industry during a time when MESH supports and resources are needed now more than ever in youth-serving settings, such as summer camp.

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-8931-2275

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