Lincoln, Selene

Building resilience through trail running: Women’s perspectives

Digital Document

Access to and benefits from leisure programmes are influenced by both personal and social factors. Within the context of leisure, understanding the gendered experience is important with regards to how adventure experiences are constructed, and how outcomes are measured and interpreted. The purpose of the current study was to determine if trail running develops and supports resilience in women, similar to other outdoor adventure programs. Participants indicated that they gained a sense of empowerment, bravery and tenacity through trail running, and reported a gain in transferable outcomes such as resilience, perspective and mental health supports that improved daily function. Resilience is an important factor for many client populations that seek leisure-based therapeutic interventions, such as within the field of therapeutic recreation. Insight into the nuances of how it is developed and supported in individuals is key when it comes to fostering resilience with clients.

Video

Presented at the DC Research Café: Student Edition (February 25, 2021). <p>Access to and benefits from leisure programmes are influenced by both personal and social factors. Within the context of leisure, understanding the gendered experience is important with regards to how adventure experiences are constructed, and how outcomes are measured and interpreted. The purpose of the current study was to determine if trail running develops and supports resilience in women, similar to other outdoor adventure programs. Participants indicated that they gained a sense of empowerment, bravery and tenacity through trail running, and reported a gain in transferable outcomes such as resilience, perspective and mental health supports that improved daily function. Resilience is an important factor for many client populations that seek leisure-based therapeutic interventions, such as within the field of therapeutic recreation. Insight into the nuances of how it is developed and supported in individuals is key when it comes to fostering resilience with clients.<p>

Building resilience through trail running: A gender perspective

Digital Document

The purpose of this study was to determine gender related differences in development of resilience through outdoor adventure, specifically trail running. Focusing on trail runners and using purposive sampling methods, 148 participants were recruited from online communities and asked to fill out an online survey [Google Forms]. Results revealed two important themes. First, despite historical underrepresentation of women in the wilderness, women used trail running to shape their identities as self-confident, brave and tenacious. Second, differences in the ways men and women built resilience were apparent. Women appeared to rely more heavily on their positivity, optimism and social network than the men. Resilience is an important factor for many of the client populations that therapeutic recreation practitioners work alongside. Insight into the nuances of how resilience is developed and supported in individuals are key when it comes to fostering resilience with clients.

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