Undergraduate Honors Posters
Title
Adventure-Based Counselling: Promoting Positive Interpersonal Behaviour in Mentally Ill Offenders
Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
4-2014
Journal
Undergraduate Honors Posters
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an adventure-based counselling (ABC) program on the interpersonal behaviour of forensic psychiatric inpatients. To our knowledge, no research had examined the use of an adventure-therapy approach with this population despite the promising literature on ABC with other samples. Participants were mentally ill offenders at the Southwest Center for Forensic Mental Health Care in St. Thomas, Ontario. Seventeen participants took part in a 12-session ABC program which addressed interpersonal skills through group challenge activities. Measures of interpersonal behaviour were assessed using both self-report questionnaires and file review. Results showed hypothesized directionality for several of the dependent variables; however, contrary to what was expected, two of the variables showed statistically significant decreases in interpersonal behaviour. Though none of our hypotheses were supported, these findings represent only the first iteration of this ABC study. Future repetitions may benefit from methodological nuances that aim to increase statistical power.