Behavior Management Through Adventure

Behavior Management through Adventure (BMtA) was originally developed and implemented by Project Adventure in the early 1980s to address the needs of at-risk youth in Georgia. Since that time, the program has been implemented by more than 20 schools, agencies, and programs with more than 5,000 youth in Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

BMtA is a form of outdoor therapy for youth with behavioral, psychological, and learning disabilities; students excluded from school for disciplinary reasons; and juvenile offenders. BMtA incorporates group-based adventure challenges (e.g., ropes courses) and developmental exercises with problem-solving components in an effort to help participants change feelings, thinking, and social behaviors; reduce dysfunctional behaviors; improve functional life behaviors; and avoid rearrest.

Trained facilitators deliver BMtA over approximately 60-120 days to groups of 12-20 youth who live together and participate in therapy together. Participants are required to create and understand safe and respectful behavioral norms under which the group will operate, to commit to those norms, and to accept a shared responsibility for the maintenance of those norms. The group participates in adventure challenges, which are introduced incrementally, to allow trust to develop within the group. Over time, these exercises are used to reinforce skills such as patience, listening, seeing another's point of view, leading, following, planning, and experiencing the consequences of actions. BMtA's intent is to enable participants to use these skills in dealing with problem behaviors, and members of the group, as well as facilitators, can call group meetings at any time to acknowledge positive actions or address problems.

The goal of Behavior Management through Adventure is to address the needs of at-risk youth in therapeutic settings.

Behavior Management Through Adventure was successful in lowering rearrest rates, decreasing the time period from release until rearrest, improving depression symptoms, increasing family self-concept, and lowering social introversion.

In studies reviewed for this summary, BMtA was used with adjudicated youth between the ages of 8 and 18 who were committed to the program by the court system; as such, BMtA was delivered under conditions of incarceration, although not necessarily through a traditional detention facility.

In one study, the population was composed of male juvenile offenders whose offenses included buying and selling drugs, nonviolent sexual offenses, and violent offenses. The study compared the time period from release until rearrest for juvenile offenders in three groups: (1) those who received BMtA; (2) those who received an outdoor therapeutic program (OTP), which included base camping in cabins and short-term adventure programming (e.g., challenge ropes courses, backpacking, rock climbing, caving); and (3) those who received the State of Georgia's Youth Development Center program (YDC), which consisted of treatment as usual in 90-day boot camp programs in State institutions. Results from a log-rank test indicated that the time period from release until rearrest was significantly different by treatment group (p < .001). A comparison of 95% confidence intervals indicated that the average time period from release until rearrest for youth who received BMtA was longer than that of youth who received an OTP or YDC. The differences between the BMtA and OTP groups and the BMtA and YDC groups were associated with small effect sizes (Cohen's d = 0.24 and 0.40, respectively).

In a second study using matched group design, the population was composed of male juvenile sex offenders. The study compared the time period from release until rearrest for juvenile sex offenders in three groups: (1) those who received LEGACY, a behavior management program that incorporated BMtA; (2) those who received an other specialized program (OSP), including individual and group therapy programs with experiential exercises and residential psychiatric programs with outdoor components; and (3) those who received YDC, which consisted of treatment as usual in 90-day boot camp programs in State institutions. Results from a log-rank test indicated that the time period from release until rearrest was significantly different by treatment group (p = .007). A post hoc multiple comparison procedure indicated that the average time period from release until rearrest for youth in the LEGACY group was longer than that of youth in the YDC group (p = .042); however, no significant difference was found for a comparison of youth in the LEGACY group and youth in the OSP group.

In a third study, the population was composed of juvenile drug offenders; this population was primarily made up of male participants. Juvenile drug offenders were assessed before and after receiving CO-OP, a residential substance abuse treatment program that incorporated BMtA. After receiving the intervention, the youth had lower average Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores (p < .0001), higher average Family Self-Concept subscores (p = .022), and lower average Social Introversion scale scores (p = .045).

References:

Study 1: Gillis, H. L., Gass, M. A., & Russell, K. C. (2008). The effectiveness of Project Adventure's behavior management programs for male offenders in residential treatment. Residential Treatment for Children and Youth, 25(3), 227-247.

Study 2: Gillis, H. L., & Gass, M. A. (2010). Treating juveniles in a sex offender program using adventure-based programming: A matched group design. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 19(1), 20-34.

Study 3: Gillis, H. L., Simpson, C. A., Thomsen, D. D., & Martin, B. A. (1995). Final evaluation of Project Adventure's CO-OP program for court referred, drug involved youth.