Date of Award
May 2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management
Committee Member
Brent Hawkins
Committee Member
Jasmine Townsend
Committee Member
Brandi Crowe
Abstract
After being granted full military participation in 2015, the population of female veterans is now increasing rapidly (Department of Veteran Affairs, 2017; Strong, Crowe, & Bolton, 2018). Despite this, however, women in the military are commonly overlooked or overshadowed in veteran research (Hawkins & Crowe, 2018a, 2018b; Lundberg et al., 2016). Existing research on this population has recommended an increase in female-specific services to better serve the unique needs of female veterans (Hawkins & Crowe, 2018a, 2018b). In order to provide these services there first needs to be an expansion of research on veterans to include the female voices as it relates to the military experience. This study is part of a larger, multi-methods study in which quantitative and qualitative data were collected to examine the effects of Higher Ground’s outdoor recreation camp on the community reintegration process for female veterans. The data presented and analyzed in this thesis is representative of the quantitative data collected through online surveys. The purpose of this study is to provide further evidence for use of recreational therapy and outdoor recreation activities for female veterans. Quantitative results from the study indicate that participation in outdoor recreation camps such as Higher Ground can help ease difficulty of community reintegration in female veterans. Further research needs to be done on female veterans and their experiences reintegrating after attending outdoor recreation programs.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Anna, "Understanding Female Veterans' Post-Military Community Reintegration as Influenced by Higher Ground Military Program" (2020). All Theses. 3330.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/3330