Gender Matters

This two-phase study investigates the process of developing resilience through participation in outdoor adventure programming. In this study, resilience is conceptualized as experiencing growth through a disruptive event. In the first phase, a pre–post survey measure was used to assess resilience in university students who were enrolled in a semester-long adventure education program, a three-credit leisure class, or a one-credit leadership class. The second phase involved semi-structured interviews to better understand the results from Phase 1, which indicated an interaction effect between gender and time. Of particular interest was the finding that males decreased in reported levels of resilience, while females experienced increased levels. The salience of gender roles to adventure education programming is considered as an explanation for these results.