2022 Volume 25 Pages 1-17
This study determines the effects of an 18-day Outward Bound type camping therapy intervention on ego development and the self-concept in children with developmental disorders. The camping program, which was based on movement using mountain bikes, included activities such as river trekking, canoeing, rock climbing, cave exploration, and mountain climbing and was implemented yearly over a 6-year period. The participants were 23 adolescent children with developmental disorders (males: 21, females: 2, mean age=13.43±0.84). Kajita’s Self-Actualization Scale along with the Landscape Montage Technique were used for analysis. The results showed that from the four factors of the self-concept (achievement motivation, self-effort, self-confidence, and perceived self), the camp continued to have an effect on self-effort one month after completion. In addition, although achievement motivation increased immediately after the camp, it fell significantly one month later. Perceived self, which was the highest immediately after the camp, also fell significantly one month later. No significant change was observed for self-confidence. The effect size for these four factors before and after camping therapy was larger in this study than in previous research on typically developing children. Regarding the ego development stages for the children with developmental disorders who took part in the study, the egocentric stage “composition type” accounted for the majority (14 children, 57.5%) before the intervention, indicating a low composition type. However, after going through camping therapy, the composition type of 8 of these 14 children (35%) was found to have improved. From the Landscape Montage Technique analysis, there were some cases where integration increased and sociality improved, even among children in the low stages of ego development.
