The camp community understands that participation in camp produces a variety of impacts; what is less understood are the causal mechanisms leading to outcomes. In the past, research on the camp experience treated causal mechanisms as monolithic; this commentary argues that a weakness in existing camp research is the assumption that…

To support practitioners' need for reliable and valid measures of the youth camp experience, this study compares the results of two analytic approaches--(1) composite-based paired samples t tests and (2) a latent structural equation model approach--using the Parental Perceptions of Developmental Outcomes (PPDO) scale in a sample of 930 parents of…

Background: Summer camps engage millions of youth in enrichment opportunities during the summertime while employing a substantial young adult workforce to provide high-quality programs and services to camp participants. Workplace fatigue has been implicated in camp-related injury and illness events, yet few studies have targeted fatigue among camp…

Interest in both the objective dimension and the subjective dimension of summer camp experiences has grown among camp scholars. As a building block for understanding subjective elements of summer camp experiences, discrete defining moments may provide insights into linkages between what program providers deliver and the experiences that youth…

Background: Camp experiences contribute to a range of positive developmental youth outcomes, but camp experiences also pose a risk for youth because of potential exposure to injuries and illnesses. The camp community has lacked both a methodology and effective benchmarks for injury and illness monitoring. Furthermore, camp-related policy…

Many children experience summer learning loss during the summer as measured by grade-level equivalents on standardized tests. Camp-based reading programs are a promising strategy to reduce summer learning loss. Situated within a positive youth development (PYD) theoretical approach, this study explored the efficacy of a U.S. camp-based reading…