Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2005

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Recreation, Parks and Tourism Resources

Committee Chair

Chad D. Pierskalla.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the changes in life effectiveness following ropes course participation for participants of the Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (BOW) program using a quasi-experimental design. Ropes course participation was also examined as a potential program modification to the existing BOW. The Life Effectiveness Questionnaire (LEQ) was administered to 85 of the 90 participants at the Becoming an Outdoors Woman Program sponsored by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Participants in the control group (N=65) and experimental group (N=20) both completed a ten question demographic survey and the LEQ on three occasions (pre-test, post-test, and one month follow-up). The experimental group completed a ropes course two weeks following BOW and immediately prior to the post-test. The ropes course participants were also observed using the LEQ observation sheet and a random group (N=8) was selected to participate in one-on-one interviews one week following the ropes course.;The General Linear Model was used to measure the differences between the three observations for both the control and experimental groups. An independent samples t-test was used to measure the differences between the experimental and control group for each of the three observations. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to measure the differences between the three observations for both groups for each of the eight sub-scales of the LEQ.;The results showed a significant increase in LEQ scores at the post-test which remained the same at the one month follow-up for the experimental group. The control group also showed a significant increase at the post-test, but the group did return to pre-test levels one month following participation in BOW. These findings do indicate that the ropes course experience did have a long term effect on overall LEQ scores. The Cronbach's Alpha Reliability Estimates indicated strong and consistent reliability scores for the LEQ.

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