Date of Award
May 2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management
Committee Member
Ryan J Gagnon
Committee Member
Teresa Tucker
Committee Member
Kellie Walters
Abstract
This thesis focused on the influence of a disease-specific medical specialty camp on the well-being of adolescents with Type 1 diabetes. The study was conducted in the Summer of 2019 at Camp Kudzu in Georgia, USA. Data on well-being was collected both pre- and post-camp from a total of 537 campers. Well-being in this study is operationalized as the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (BPN). The indication of well-being is supplemented by body appreciation (BA) scores to explore the relation that the participants have with their bodies. Two standardized measures were used: the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction (BPNS) or Frustration (BPNF) Scale and the Body Appreciation Scale 2 for Children (BAS-2C). The researchers approached questions surrounding the relationship between BPNSF and BA; specifically it was found that there was an increase in BA from pre- to post-camp (mean difference = 0.189, SD = 0.731, p = 0.000) and that pre-camp BPNSF items positively moderated that increase (autonomy satisfaction [β = .0927, 95% C.I. (-.0956, .2810, p = 0.334]; relatedness satisfaction [β = 0.096, 95% C.I. (0.049 to 0.056), p = 0.000]; competence satisfaction [β = .101, 95% C.I. (0.059 to 0.114), p = 0.000]; autonomy frustration [β = 0.096, 95% C.I. (0.056 to 0.136), p = 0.000]; relatedness frustration [β = 0.048, 95% C.I. (0.013 to 0.083), p = 0.008]; competence frustration [β = 0.054, 95% C.I. (0.021 to 0.088), p = 0.001]. Gender was also explored as a moderating factor, and it was found to significantly moderate the relation between pre- and post-camp BA [+1 SD, gender = female; β = 0.795, SE = 0.073, p = 0.000, 95% CI (0.652 to 0.939); -1 SD, gender = male; β = 0.868, SE = 0.080, p = 0.000, 95% CI (0.709 to 0.939)]. These findings indicate that even without explicit programming toward doing so, an MSC may be a place to cultivate feelings of body appreciation. It was also found that it is difficult to separate BPN and BA (post-hoc correlation analyses were run) and that future studies may further analyze the interrelatedness between the measures.
Recommended Citation
Moorhead, Rebecca Lynn, "What’s on Their Minds? An Examination of Disease-Specific Medical Specialty Camps as an Influence on Basic Psychological Needs and Body Appreciation in Adolescents with Type I Diabetes" (2020). All Theses. 3287.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3287