A growing body of empirical evidence suggests that attending specialized
summer camps is beneficial for chronically ill youth (Briery & Rabian, 1999). However,
there is some inconsistency across studies regarding these benefits (Hazzard & Angert,
1986). One potential explanation for these differences across camps is that they may
differ in how well they recruit and train effective volunteer camp counselors. This
possibility cannot be explored until more research is conducted identifying what type of
person volunteers to work with chronically ill children and how they differ from others.
In response to this gap in the research literature, the present study was conducted
to examine characteristics of volunteer camp counselors (n =72), a group of
nonvolunteers (n = 325), and a group of volunteer mentors (n = 194). Guided by Omoto
and Snyders (1990) volunteer process model, the investigation explored how counselors
differed from others in terms of dispositional variables, knowledge, and experience; and
the relation between these individual characteristics and ratings of counselor efficacy
was explored. Changes in counselors knowledge of and/or attitudes toward chronically
ill children after their camp experience were also examined. Results suggest that camp counselors differ from others in terms of dispositional
characteristics (e.g., attachment style), knowledge, and experience. Specifically,
counselors displayed higher levels of agreeableness, greater attachment security, more
knowledge of chronic illness, and greater experience with chronic illness than
nonvolunteers. Efforts to predict which counselors would be rated as most effective were
unsuccessful. Counselors knowledge of illness increased over the course of their camp
experience.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/3210 |
| Date | 12 April 2006 |
| Creators | Fiala, Samuel E. |
| Contributors | Cepeda-Benito, Antonio, Heffer, Robert W. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 1687293 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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