Promoting Social-Emotional Learning Through Adventure Therapy Groups: A Pilot Study

This pilot study explored the impact of Adventure Therapy (AT) groups on middle-school students’ (n = 40) social-emotional development. Using an experimental time-series design, researchers measured prosocial and behavior problems from student and teacher perspectives for participants randomly assigned to AT groups or a waitlist-control group that received school counseling services as usual during the study. Results suggested that students did not perceive any statistically significant differences in prosocial or problem behaviors. However, teachers reported that students in the AT groups had significantly lower behavior problems, specifically externalizing behaviors, based on effect sizes than those in the waitlist-control group. Implications for school counselors and future research are discussed.