How Camp Prepares Children for Lives of Success

Stephen Gray Wallace, MS Ed The middle and high school years are filled with challenges, change, and promise. Perhaps more than anything else, parents hope that their children will be prepared to be productive and successful young men and women of good character. I call this “readiness.” They also want their children to avoid risky behavior that might very well interfere with healthy development. Camps play a critical role in promoting readiness and reducing risk by helping children build four essential pillars of success: 1. Sense of Self 2. Rites of Passage 3. Positive Risk Taking 4. Mentoring Relationships Each has been linked with positive youth outcomes and risk reduction related to such behaviors as underage drinking, other drug use, and early intimate sexual behavior. They also relate to overall mental health. Mentoring Relationships The fourth pillar of success is perhaps the most important: mentors. A review of available data points to evidence of positive effects of mentoring. For example, it has been shown to:

• Enhance school performance.

• Improve relationships with parents and peers.

• Reduce initiation of drug and alcohol use.

• Decrease incidents of youth violence. We also know that mentoring is closely linked with other important psychological/sociological constructs, such as positive youth development, resiliency, and risk/ protective factors. While this data reflects formal or “matched” mentoring, similarly positive results were revealed (Wallace, 2008) in my study of informal mentors — individuals whom young people get to know and rely on in their everyday lives — teachers, coaches, neighbors, aunts, uncles . . . and camp staff!

Here’s what I found:

• Young people who identify at least one influential, “natural” mentor in their life report that they have a higher sense of self and are more likely to take risks that affect their lives positively.

• Young people with mentors are significantly more likely than those without to also report frequently feeling happy and less likely to report regularly feeling depressed or bored. Notably, more than half of teens themselves (56 percent) say the absence of a mentor would negatively affect them (Teens Today, 2006)! So, what are kids looking for in a mentor? Here are the characteristics identified by more than 3,000 kids: trustworthy, caring, understanding, respectful, helpful, dependable, fun, compassionate, and responsible. They also want someone who is a good listener who offers good advice (Teens Today, 2006). Risk Reduction So, when it comes to risk reduction, does camp make a difference? The data says yes! As I have reported before, young people who participated in camp are significantly more likely to report being highly mentored (37 percent versus 23 percent), taking positive risks (48 percent versus 30 percent), and having a high sense of self (53 percent versus 40 percent) (Wallace, 2013). In the aggregate, young people who have not spent time at a summer camp are twice as likely as those who have to report that they are repeaters, as opposed to avoiders, of destructive behaviors (8 percent versus 16 percent) (Wallace, 2008). Camp counselors help to ready children for success by being present in their lives, during the summer and long after. Excerpted from Wallace’s November/December 2013 Camping Magazine article, “Ready, Set, Go.” References Teens Today. (2006). New study shows teens with “natural” mentors have higher sense of self and take more positive risks. Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) and Liberty Mutual Insurance. Retrieved from http://sadd.org/teenstoday/mentors.htm Wallace, Stephen. (2008). Reality gap — Alcohol, drugs and sex: What parents don’t know and teens aren’t telling. New York: New York. Union Square Press/Sterling Publishing Company. Wallace, Stephen. (2013). Camp or college? Families face a Hobson’s choice. Camping Magazine 86(1). Stephen Gray Wallace, MS Ed, author of the book Reality Gap — Alcohol, Drugs, and Sex: What Parents Don’t Know and Teens Aren’t Telling, has broad experience as a school psychologist and adolescent counselor. He serves as director of counseling and counselor training at the Cape Cod Sea Camps, senior advisor for policy, research, and education at SADD, and associate research professor and director of the Center for Adolescent Research and Education (CARE) at Susquehanna University. For more information about Stephen’s work, visit www. stephengraywallace.com. © Summit Communications Management Corporation 2013 All Rights Reserved. About ACA. The American Camp Association (ACA) works to preserve, promote, and enhance the camp experience for children and adults. ACAAccredited camp programs ensure that children are provided with a diversity of educational and developmentally challenging learning opportunities. There are more than 2,400 ACAaccredited camps that meet up to 280 health and safety standards. For more information, visit www.ACAcamps.org.