Prior research suggests that outdoor adventure programs have the potential to fulfill psychological needs and enhance participants' sense of competency. However, the achievement of these outcomes is influenced by antecedent variables for each participant, such as family backgrounds and personal characteristics. The purpose of this study was to explore how the family style of youth participants in outdoor adventure programs affected their pre- and post-program participation psychological needs and specifically, intrinsic motivation. Family style is defined in this study as the “levels of caring and discipline family members give to their children” and is cited as significant for its “connection to interest, autonomy, competence, and relatedness.” Conducted in Taiwan, this study focused on two challenge education courses for high school students (average age was 15), each three days in duration. Eighty-four adventure program participants were included in the study, each of which completed the Complex Family Questionnaire (youth perception of family support and family challenge) and several subscales of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory.
Overall, the findings suggested that family style and adventure program experiences were independently related to participants' perceptions of autonomy, competence, relatedness, and interest. There were differences prior to the adventure program on relatedness and competence between the youth of high and low family support/challenge families, which disappeared after the adventure program. All outcomes (autonomy, competence, relatedness and interest) increased significantly from the beginning to the end of the adventure program. However, only relatedness was related to family style. Youth that came from families where there was high support and high challenge by the parents (HSHC; suggested by research to be an optimal parenting style) had a greater level of relatedness than youth that came from families with low support and low challenge (LSLC; suggested by research to be a sub-optimal parenting style). However, the LSLC group showed improvement on interest, competence, and relatedness over the course of the outdoor adventure program, suggesting that this type of program can help meet the psychological needs of youth from families in which the parenting approach offers limited support and challenge.
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