Ropes course programs provide numerous benefits but what makes programs effective has been unclear. The purpose of the study was to: 1) determine if there was a measurable difference in meaningful involvement between the Challenge by Choice (CbC) and Inviting Optimum Participation (IOP) approaches to ropes course program design and delivery, and 2) identify and compare the linkages among program attributes, outcomes, and values with each approach. The study involved 360 young adolescents (ages 10 -15) who took part in full-day ropes course programs provided by one of four organizations in Ontario, Canada. Participants included 172 boys and 188 girls. The average age was 12.7 years and 47% had previous ropes course program experience. Participants completed either: 1) an experience sampling survey related to meaningful involvement or 2) a means-end laddering survey related to program attributes, outcomes, and values. The experience sampling data were subjected to multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The dependent variables were meaningful involvement during high (belayed) activities and low (non-belayed) activities. The independent variables were program type, sex, and ropes course experience. Program type had a significant effect (8(3,158) = 0.937, p< 0.05) for meaningful involvement experienced during high activities. Meaningful involvement consists of the areas engagement, choice, and view of self. Follow-up ANOVAs indicated that choice (F(1, 160) = 6.127, p< 0.05) was significantly higher in IOP programs. Differences between the programs in engagement and view of self were not significant. There was no significant effect for low activities. Means-end analysis was used to identify linkages among program attributes, outcomes, and values. Responses were organized into 11 Hierarchical Value Maps. Participants in IOP programs identified different linkages than participants in CbC programs. IOP program participants were more likely to mention the attribute low activities and the outcome group efficacy as significant and less likely to mention the outcome anxiety. CbC participants were less likely to mention low activities and group efficacy and more likely to mention anxiety and the value excitement. These findings indicate that ropes course program design and delivery can be manipulated to provide specific benefits and facilitate participant experiences of meaningful involvement.

Ropes course programs provide numerous benefits but what makes programs effective has been unclear. The purpose of the study was to: 1) determine if there was a measurable difference in meaningful involvement between the Challenge by Choice (CbC) and Inviting Optimum Participation (IOP) approaches to ropes course program design and delivery, and 2) identify and compare the linkages among program attributes, outcomes, and values with each approach. The study involved 360 young adolescents (ages 10 -15) who took part in full-day ropes course programs provided by one of four organizations in Ontario, Canada. Participants included 172 boys and 188 girls. The average age was 12.7 years and 47% had previous ropes course program experience. Participants completed either: 1) an experience sampling survey related to meaningful involvement or 2) a means-end laddering survey related to program attributes, outcomes, and values. The experience sampling data were subjected to multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The dependent variables were meaningful involvement during high (belayed) activities and low (non-belayed) activities. The independent variables were program type, sex, and ropes course experience. Program type had a significant effect (8(3,158) = 0.937, p< 0.05) for meaningful involvement experienced during high activities. Meaningful involvement consists of the areas engagement, choice, and view of self. Follow-up ANOVAs indicated that choice (F(1, 160) = 6.127, p< 0.05) was significantly higher in IOP programs. Differences between the programs in engagement and view of self were not significant. There was no significant effect for low activities. Means-end analysis was used to identify linkages among program attributes, outcomes, and values. Responses were organized into 11 Hierarchical Value Maps. Participants in IOP programs identified different linkages than participants in CbC programs. IOP program participants were more likely to mention the attribute low activities and the outcome group efficacy as significant and less likely to mention the outcome anxiety. CbC participants were less likely to mention low activities and group efficacy and more likely to mention anxiety and the value excitement. These findings indicate that ropes course program design and delivery can be manipulated to provide specific benefits and facilitate participant experiences of meaningful involvement.

In the last decade, anthropogenic climate change has caused strong impacts on natural and human systems worldwide. It is of particular importance to include youths in the international decision-making process centred on climate change as they represent the closest living relatives to future generations. Therefore they need to have a say in the decisions affecting their future. Different schools of thought defined characteristics for ideal communication in these political decision-making arenas. The most contradicting theories are on one hand deliberative democrats who favour dialogic and consensus-based proceedings and on the other hand proponents of agonistic pluralism who prefer the conflictual elements of force and disruption in communication processes. The aim of this study is to explore synergies and intersections between both in theory contradicting paths. The study follows a case study design of the international climate change negotiations COP22 in Marrakech 2016. The data collection process involved empirical observations and semi-structured interviews with 30 international youth participants as to their experiences of participating in proceedings, petitioning politicians, and protesting outside venues. The results of this study show that young people concurrently navigate between formal deliberative proceedings and informal agonistic approaches, taking advantage of their underacknowledged positive cumulative and complementing effects. The interplay between both paths stimulates meaningful involvement for youths at the conference and within the climate change social movement. Youths navigating simultaneously between both paths are shown to have both insider knowledge about the vulnerabilities of the system and outsider knowledge providing enough distance to criticise the proceedings. Thus, these youths have the best merits to meaningfully involve in the decision making and successfully introduce change. The process of enculturation to the norms and procedural rules of the conference contributes to the level of meaningful youth involvement and determines the participation path chosen. Moreover, the results outline that the influence of each path in the decision-making process and the definition of meaningful involvement varies with the arena in which it is executed. Whereas meaningful involvement for deliberative inclined youths can be best described through a shared power youth-adult participation, youths following the agonistic path seek meaningful involvement through emotion work and empowerment expressed in direct actions and protest.