Exploring Participant Development Through Adventure-Based Programming: A Model from the National Outdoor Leadership School

Recreation program evaluation efforts historically have focused primarily on the identification of program-specific outcomes rather than focusing on the influence of specific mechanisms of change. The purpose of this study was to begin to examine programs offered by the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) to develop an etiological model of participant development. Hierarchical modeling results identified participant antecedents and malleable program characteristics that predict participant development measured by a set of six targeted outcomes: communication, leadership, small group behavior, judgment in the outdoors, outdoor skills, and environmental awareness. Participants' perceptions of personal empowerment and previous expedition experience were both related to increases in all targeted outcomes. Five other predictor variables were significant in certain models.