Facing and overcoming a challenge can be a natural confidence boost for almost anyone. Children in the west Seattle area have the opportunity to test themselves at Camp Long and participate in the camp’s challenge courses, featuring elements high and low to the ground.

At Camp Long in Seattle, they use various obstacles and activities to develop different life skills that WSU Extension adventure educator Scott VanderWey and clinical assistant professor in human development Robby Cooper been studying.

“We wanted to look at whether these programs were affecting these kid’s life skills the way we were hoping,” Cooper said.

VanderWey and Cooper designed an evaluation to test youth participants on four different life skills: communication, decision-making, teamwork, and self-efficacy. After a couple summers of collecting surveys, the pair analyzed the data and saw a significant increase in all four life skills.

In analyzing the data, VanderWey and Cooper noticed that there was a difference in the teamwork variable when they parsed it out by gender.

“For female participants and minority participants, we saw a significant change in their feelings about working on a team,” Cooper said.

Cooper described the teamwork variable as being included or feeling part of a team and agreed that this may be caused by the participant’s social or economic position.

“If you’re talking about female participants or non-white participants, these are often kids who are less included in these types of activities, as girls aren’t socialized into sports and athletics the same way that boys are, in general,” Cooper said.

VanderWey and Cooper have seen associations between participant’s race and gender and their confidence in being part of a team.

“I think it’s interesting that the one variable that’s about inclusion and acceptance is the one we’re seeing changes in the female and the minority participants,” Cooper said.

Through WSU Extension Youth Programming and Seattle Parks and Recreation, Camp Long is able to provide 4-H programming for its youth attendees. 4-H is an organization for youth in the U.S. that is dedicated to building life skills through outdoor education and challenge programming.

“The only reason we can find these types of results is because Camp Long is surveying a diverse group of kids,” Cooper said. “Usually, if you look at who has access to outdoor recreation, adventure recreation activities, it’s middle class white kids.”

VanderWey and Cooper are still collecting surveys, continuing to look at trends in their youth participant’s life skills, and refining variables.

reporting by gabriella ramos