Outdoor Adventure Activities Benefits Catalogue - Outdoors WA

Executive SummaryResearch into the benefits of outdoor adventure activities highlights the valuablecontribution they makes to personal health and wellbeing. As the empirical andanecdotal evidence in the outdoor adventure field begins to unfold, the proliferationof evidenced-based research grows exponentially. The unique opportunities within thenatural and social environments offered by outdoor adventure activities, providevarying contexts in which these positive connections are made. These connections arereferred to in the outdoor adventure literature as being with the self, others and theenvironment. Outdoor adventure activities provide opportunities for the connection ofindividuals with nature (the natural environment), direct connection with other people(interpersonal), and importantly, with themselves (personal). Specifically, the benefitsof these connections are shown to lie in the strength and placement of theseconnections.This report draws on research from education, recreation, leisure, tourism, sport,adult learning, health, and therapy to highlight the evidence of the positivecontributions of outdoor adventure activities. The authors acknowledge the combinedeffects of difficulties encountered when measuring experiences and benefits with thepaucity of Australian and New Zealand research in this area. This has meant a broadsweep of the available research to include both qualitative and quantitative studies,theoretical papers, and reports from complimentary disciplines and other countries.The evidence-based research reported on here used a variety of methods includingmeta-analyses, questionnaires (mostly utilising psychometric questioning e.g. LifeEffectiveness Questionnaire - LEQ), and in-depth interviews and were either crosssectionalor longitudinal in design.The main benefits of outdoor adventure activities, as shown in the evidence-basedliterature, include interpersonal and intrapersonal skills developed through engagingin outdoor adventure activities in meaningful ways. Benefits for the naturalenvironment were less directly evidenced, however indirectly were given asdeveloping more nurturing individuals and communities, and the development ofenvironmental awareness and stewardship. The long-term nature of changed attitudesto the environment and sustainability are yet to be examined through longitudinalresearch.Benefits were evident in the psycho-social, psychological, physical and spiritualdomains, particularly with regards to developing self efficacy, intellectual flexibility,personal skills, and relationship building. The benefits that result from participatingin outdoor adventure activities are facilitate through the provision of appropriatefacilities and natural resources and well as the design of programs that areintentionally working towards particular objectivesWhile there was a wide range of available research, what this review highlights is theneed to established a strategic interdisciplinary research agenda within whichresearchers, program and activity providers, land managers, policy advisors andother key stakeholders may conduct research and evaluation, and then disseminatethe knowledge for others to build upon.Page iv