New Study Shows Importance of Summer Camp
February 23, 2017 by Don Gentle
The North Carolina Youth Camp Association has released a study showing what parents believe are the important outcomes of camp. Our Camp High Rocks parents were part of this study. I have highlighted a few of the paragraphs from the executive summary of the study.
“The development outcomes that parents associated with their child’s participation in an NCYCA camp are numerous and suggest that NCYCA camps are providing youth with holistic growth and development opportunities across a number of skill areas. These results are consistent with other studies of the parental perceptions of camp experiences (Henderson, Whitaker, Bialeschki, Scanlin, & Thurber, 2007; Michalski, Mishna, Worthington, & Cummings, 2003), and the amount of change (growth from the before camp to the after camp measure) is particularly consistent with results found by Baughman, Garst, & Fuhrman, 2009. Additionally, growth in social and emotional outcomes reported by parents in this study is comparable to social and emotional impacts of school participation for youth in K thru 8th grade (Payton, Weissberg, Durlak, Dymnicki, Taylor, Schellinger, & Pachan, 2008).”
What I found compelling are the skills that camp offers for future success. According to the study…
“…parents reported increases in developmental outcomes like resilience, cooperation, communication, critical thinking, and decision-making- skills closely mapped to “21st Century Skills” that employers have identified as important for future workforce success (Casner-Lotto, Barrington, & Wright, 2006). NCYCA camp experiences appear to be particularly effective at building these skills in young people.”
Furthermore, parents believe that summer camp gives them an advantage when it comes to school success.
“An overwhelming majority of parents (91%) associated camp involvement with school success, and this association was reflected in how camp prepares youth for life transitions, how camp reinforces life lessons learned at home, and how camp prepares youth for independent living.”
In short, parents that send their children to great camps like ours find that their son not only has a great experience, but he also learns some important life skills along the way. I have added a link to the complete study below.