The Impact of a Wilderness Experience on the Social Interactions and Social Expectations of Behaviorally Disordered Adolescents

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Abstract
The literature clearly supports the thesis that behaviorally disordered students need to develop appropriate social skills and the ability to cope effectively with stressful situations. Although a majority of the literature has focused on the development of social skills in the school setting, other settings such as wilderness programs appear to be viable alternatives to traditional training programs. The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of a modified wilderness program on the cooperative and aggressive behaviors of seriously emotionally disturbed adolescents utilizing standardized measures and direct observation procedures. The second goal was to apply Bandura's self-efficacy theory as a means to understand and evaluate the impact of this intervention procedure. The results of this study indicate that the behaviorally disordered adolescents who participated in the wilderness program had a significant increase in cooperative behaviors, and that the direct observation procedures were significantly more sensitive to changes in the participants' overt behaviors.

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