Date of Award

5-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Legacy Department

Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Gwynn Powell

Committee Member

Dr. Robert Barcelona

Committee Member

Dr. Teresa Tucker

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine international camp professionals' perceptions of the importance and performance of Eccles and Gootman's (2002) Eight Features that Maximize Positive Youth Development. Members of the International Camping Fellowship, ages 18 and older and of different demographic backgrounds, were asked for their perceived importance and performance ratings of the eight features on a five point Likert scale. The data were used to create importance-performance matrices using Martilla and James' (1977) Importance-Performance Analysis technique in order to create visual depictions of the recorded perceptions. This cross-cultural, cross-sectional study utilized Importance-Performance Analysis to create a snapshot of perceptions of positive youth development worldwide. Overall, worldwide perceptions of the positive youth development features turned out to be positive, with some differences based on the respondents' region of origin. Survey participants' age, level of education, and gender (with one feature exception) were found to have no effect on the perceptions of positive youth development.

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