Impact of Camp Experiences on Social Skills & Happiness
With depression, anxiety, and addiction rates high among adolescents, and many youth engaged in relational aggression and other damaging social practices like bullying, there is clearly a need to find effective interventions to improve social skills, relationships, and overall well-being in our young people. Camp professionals know from experience that camp can serve as a positive, often life-changing, psychological intervention for youth, but for the “noncamp” world to understand the potential benefits of summer camp, rigorous research needs to be conducted and disseminated. Many in the fields of psychology and youth development have not considered summer camp as an intervention or preventative alternative to more traditional approaches such as individual or group therapy. Therefore, many parents do not understand the potential benefits a camp experience may have for their child.
Impact of Camp Experiences on Social Skills and Well-being
To become happy, successful adults, children need certain social skills to develop positive relationships with others. Over the past 15 years, the field of positive psychology has looked into what makes people thrive rather than what causes psychological distress (e.g., depression, anxiety). Several studies have concluded that positive relationships are a key predictor of overall well-being. Good social skills, in turn, predict positive relationships. Youth who lack social competencies, just as much as youth who lack academic competencies, require coaching from adult teachers and mentors. In addition, all youth — even those with good social skills — benefit from practicing and honing those skills. Many summer camp programs specifically focus on teaching, modeling, and practicing the social skills that most schools — because of lack of time and resources — cannot teach.
Source: ACACamps.org