The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fogler Library 2005 An Examination of the Scope and Variety of Adventure Therapy Services within the State of Maine Donald F. Lynch Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Lynch, Donald F., "An Examination of the Scope and Variety of Adventure Therapy Services within the State of Maine" (2005). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 19. http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/19 This Open-Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. AN EXAMINATION OF THE SCOPE AND VAFUETY OF ADVENTURE THERAPY SERVICES WITHIN THE STATE OF MAINE BY Donald F. Lynch B.A. University of Maine M.Ed. University of Maine A THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education (in Counselor Education) The Graduate School The University of Maine May, 2005 Advisory Committee: Sydney Thomas, Associate Professor of Education, Advisor Dorothy Breen, Associate Professor of Education William Davis, Professor of Education Sandra Caron, Professor of Family Relationships John Yasenchak, Instructor in Education David Remington, Institutional Research, Nova Southeastern University AN EXAMINATION OF THE SCOPE AND VARIETY OF ADVENTURE THERAPY SERVICES WITHIN THE STATE OF MAINE By Donald F. Lynch Thesis Advisor: Dr. Sydney Thomas An Abstract of the Thesis to be Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education (in Counselor Education) May, 2005 This study involved an examination of the scope and variety of adventure therapy services that are currently being offered by mental health agencies within the state of Maine. A review of related literature has shown that there were a number of closely related therapeutic modalities which could be subsumed by the tam adventure therapy and an operational definition was proposed. The statistical conclusions of the study were compiled fiom the data collected by the use of a survey instrument which was designed and pilot tested before being mailed to 191 agencies and 56 responses were returned. Results of this survey were used to investigate the relationships between the types of mental health services being provided, the varieties of diagnosed populations being served, and the factors that either promoted or impeded the offering of adventure therapy programs. In this study, 33.9% of the agencies were offering adventure therapy services and that the majority of agencies that were not offering these services referred their clients out for them. The uses of descriptive as well as inferential statistics were employed in order to plot the frequency distributions and relative proportions of several important qualitative variables and to allow the analysis of specific relationships among these variables. In this study, factors that influenced the likelihood of offering this kind of therapy were explored. Among the variables which were investigated were psychotherapists' perceptions of the utility of adventure therapy programs, the agency's access to required financial resources, and the availability of appropriately trained staff who possessed the technical skills necessary to conduct adventure therapy programs. The findings of this study provided information about the extent of adventure therapy programs throughout Maine. This information will be valuable to mental health clinicians, social service caseworkers, and family members interested in either making or requesting referrals to those agencies offering adventure therapy services. The methodological contribution of a new survey instrument together with the development of an operational definition of the term adventure therapy will also allow subsequent researchers to conduct more empirical studies into the efficacy of this therapeutic modality. DEDICATION lkswork is dedicated to my parents who instilled within me a desire for life-long learning, a concern for the responsibilities of environmental stewardship, and a sense of compassion for the suffering of all living tliings. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the help and support of all of the individuals who contributed their time and energy to assisting with the successful completion of ths project. I would especially like to recognize the expertise and selfless commitment of my thesis advisor, Dr. Sydney Thomas without whose help this work would never have been accomplished. I would also like to express my appreciation to the members of my doctoral committee, Drs. Dorothy Breen, Sandra Caron, William Davis, David Rernington, and John Yasenchak. Their encouragement and guidance has served as an inspiration to persevere and to seek excellence throughout the conduct of this research. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the faculty, staff, and administration of Unity College who contributed their ideas, encouragement, and support toward the ultimate completion of this thesis. Finally, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Lisa Jamieson, my love and companion, for all of her inspiration and for her patience and her willingness to accommodate the disruption, and sometimes chaos, which often burdened our household during the all of the long months which were required by my efforts to complete this work. TABLE OF CONTENTS .. DEDICATION .......................................................................................11 ... ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..........................................................................111 LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................vi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................1 Statement of the Problem .....................................................................1 Significance of the Problem ................................................................. -3 Researcher Reflexivity ........................................................................9 Summary..................................................................................... -12 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE................................................ -14 History of Adventure Therapy .............................................................14 Theoretical Orientations.................................................................... -20 Definition of Terms .......................................................................... 26 The Efficacy of Adventure Therapy ......................................................32 Summary...................................................................................... 36 3 . METHODS ................................................................................... -38 Adventure Therapy Defined ............................................................... 38 Statistical Questions .........................................................................44 The Survey Instrument .....................................................................-46 The Survey Procedure .......................................................................47 Institutional Review Board Approval ..................................................... 48 . Limitahons ................................................................................... -49 Delimitations ................................................................................ -51 Summary .....................................................................................-51 4 . ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ...............................................................53 Descriptive Statistics....................................................................... -53 Inferential Statistics........................................................................ -61 Analysis of Narrative Responses ..........................................................66 Summary .....................................................................................-72 5 . DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ...................................................-74 Summary of the Research ..................................................................-74 Summary and Discussion of Descriptive Results ........................................78 Summary and Discussion of Inferential Results .........................................85 Discussion ofNarrative Responses ......................................................87 Conclusions ..................................................................................-94 Recommendations ..........................................................................104 REFERENCES ................................................................................... -106 APPENDICES .....................................................................................116 Appendix A . Adventure Therapy Survey Instrument ................................. 117 Appendix B . Participant Informed Consent .............................................123 Appendix C . Chi-square Cross-Tabulation Details ....................................125 BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR ................................................................ 127 LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Frequency Distributions of Agencies by Type ..................................54 Table 4.2 Frequency Distributions