Reid W. Larson Research

Dr. Reed W. Larson at the University of Illinois has gathered extensive studies which show that youth outdoor adventure programs have much “stickier” results than sports, Cubs and Scouts, and other extra curricular youth activities in giving rise to lasting favourable results.

In a large study, programs (such as ours) where “initiative language” (“What if we...? We could try... How about....”) arises are highly associated with true initiative activity measured 25 months later.

Larson - a widely acclaimed researcher, determined in 2000 that extracurricular (non-school-based) activities for youth broadly assisted in positive youth development. At he same time he found that not all efforts to affect youth development were equal. Larson maintains that several researchers have found that improvements made to programs based on current research have rendered these programs head and shoulders more effective than those programs which have continued unchanged while the conditions of being a youth in today's society have rapidly changed around them.

The full text of Larson's article Toward A Positive Psychology for Positive Youth Development appears on this site by clicking

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Application of Larson's Findings in our Program

We are spurred on by Larson's findings that hands-on, adventure-based programs have a lasting positive impact on youth. While his findings that the appearance of "initiative language" are from innovative researcher Shirley Brice Heath and not from his own research, we see a link to adventure programs in his treatment of the matter and the "initiative language" findings. The word "adventure" conveys a certain open-endedness - as seen in discovery learning - and what better setting to have questions like "What will we do next? or "How about we build a raft?" to come up. Larson's studies are particularly supportive of our work, when 25 months after "initiative language" appears, true initiative can be seen.

Initiative Language springs up naturally in our program from the moment youth arrive to the time they leave on Sunday. Since exploring what to do at deeper and deeper levels is what our entire program is about, and since nothing which can be accomplished without involving one's team - youth are continually asking each other what they can do next. While this inquiry is not always smooth or even kindly at the outset - and even raises issues which concern getting along with others - it is a perfect medium for such issues to work themselves out.