Article
A Meta-analysis of Wilderness Therapy Outcomes for Private Pay Clients
Journal of Child and Family Studies
(2016)
Abstract
Wilderness therapy is becoming a more widely used intervention for adolescents, but there have not been any meta-analyses focused solely on its clinical effectiveness for private pay clients. This study's objective was to conduct outcome-based meta-analyses of private-pay wilderness therapy programs, benchmark primary features of this approach, and educate the clinical community as to its effectiveness. The authors conducted a review of all available databases, as well as manual searches. Searches resulted in a meta-analysis based on 36 studies, totaling 2399 participants receiving wilderness therapy. Our meta-analyses found medium effect sizes for all six constructs assessed: self-esteem (g = 0.49), locus of control (g = 0.55), behavioral observations (g = 0.75), personal effectiveness (g = 0.46), clinical measures (g = 0.50) and interpersonal measures (g = 0.54). Subgroup analyses included age of participants, duration of program, open or closed model, presence of a mental health practitioner, and publication year.
Keywords
- ADVENTURE therapy,
- CONFIDENCE intervals,
- MEDICALLY uninsured persons,
- META-analysis,
- SYSTEMATIC reviews (Medical research),
- EFFECT sizes (Statistics),
- DATA analysis software,
- MEDICAL coding,
- DESCRIPTIVE statistics
Disciplines
Publication Date
2016
Citation Information
Liz Speelman, J E Bettmann, H L Gillis, K J Parry, et al.. "A Meta-analysis of Wilderness Therapy Outcomes for Private Pay Clients" Journal of Child and Family Studies Vol. 25 Iss. 9 (2016) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/liz-speelman/1/