2022 Volume 67 Pages 361-377
The purpose of this study was to implement integrated long-term camp therapy and examine its effect on perceived self-positiveness, sense of acceptance and social skills in children with developmental disorders, through a comparison with typically developing children. The study participants were 20 children with developmental disorders (16 males and 4 females; average age: 13.43 ± 0.84 years) and 66 typically developing children (43 males and 23 females; average age: 12.0 ± 6.73 years). These subjects completed assessments for the Sense of Self-Positiveness Scale (SSPS), Sense of Acceptance Scale (SAS), and Social Skills Scale in Camping (SSS-C) prior to camping (Pre), immediately after camping (Post1), and one month after camping (Post2). It was found that, the SSPS indicated an interaction and higher values for “self-confidence” and “self-expression and interpersonal positivity ” in the developmental disorders group in Post2. The SAS indicated a main effect of group and time period. In addition, the SSS-C indicated main effect of group and time period on “behavior to develop relations” and “behavior to participate in relations”. Furthermore, the scores for the SSPS, SAS, and SSS-C in the typical development group were higher than those in the developmental disorder group. Finally, when structural equation modeling was used to consider interrelationships among sense of self-positiveness, sense of acceptance, and social skills in children with developmental disorders, it was found that their sense of awareness of others was increased by a sense of acceptance with social skills as an intermediary, whereas self-consciousness was improved by an increase in the sense of acceptance.
