Abstract
Camping is generally believed to be a context for positive youth development. The 4-H Camp environments presumably focus on the development of life skills including managing and thinking; relating and caring; giving and working and; living and being. However, the effectiveness of the Missouri 4-H Camp environments in developing life skills among campers had never been evaluated in a consistent manner across the multiple camping programs. In order to evaluate the efficacy of these camp programs, resident campers within the 10-13 year age range were surveyed about their camping experience during the summer of 2005 and a similar group was surveyed in 2006. Parents of campers were also surveyed both years to gather their perceptions of 4-H Camp’s impact on their children in developing the life skill areas identified above. Parents and youth agreed strongly that the 4-H Camp experience was substantially valuable in developing the life skills identified in the Targeting Life Skills Model (Hendricks, 1998)
Recommended Citation
Klem, Michelle and Nicholson, Donald J.
(2008)
"Proven Effectiveness of Missouri 4-H Camps
in Developing Life Skills in Youth,"
Journal of Youth Development: Vol. 2:
Iss.
3, Article 6.
Available at:
https://open.clemson.edu/jyd/vol2/iss3/6
