Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of outdoor adventure program toward participants’ mental toughness. This study utilized pre- and post-quasiexperimental with control group design. The 42 items of psychological performance inventory (PPI; Loehr 1986) was administered among 200 (n = 100, experimental group; n = 100, control group) diploma level intervarsity athletes and age in a range of 17–30 years old. The study was conducted during 7 days program of outdoor recreation camp 2013. The camp exposed students to variety of outdoor adventure activities and challenges in natural setting. The paired sample t test analysis showed that experimental group recorded statistically significant changes in their mental toughness score [t (1, 264) = −4.050, p = 0.001] compared to the control group [t (1, 99) = −0.853, p = 0.396]. As to further confirm these findings, independent t test result showed that significant differences for pre-test scores [t (1, 264) = 2.777, p = 0.006] between the experimental and control groups. On the post-test, significant differences also recorded [t (1, 264) = 4.063, p = 0.001] between both groups. The primary finding of this study supported that outdoor adventure camp is effective in improving participants’ mental toughness. The study also provides an empirical data for future study in this field.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to express our gratitude to the Faculty of Sports Science and Recreation Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam, Selangor for support throughout the whole processes of conducting this study.
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Shafie, M.S., Che Mat, H. (2014). Advancing Recreational Studies: An Analysis of Mental Toughness in Outdoor Adventure Program. In: Adnan, R., Ismail, S., Sulaiman, N. (eds) Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Sports Science, Exercise, Engineering and Technology 2014 (ICoSSEET 2014). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-107-7_28
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