The effects of a seven day camping experience on volunteer student counselors

An investigation of the effects of a seven-day camp experience with disturbed adolescents on approximately sixty undergraduate "camp counselors" was conducted. Measures of the types of reinforcement preferred and used as well as an overall attitude toward disturbed adolescents were obtained and evaluated. The results indicated that the student counselors did not use the type of reinforcement that they felt was most important and they did not change their attitudes toward disturbed adolescents as a result of experience. The limitations of the study are discussed as well as some suggestions for future research into practicum sites for programs training teachers of the severely disturbed.