Adventurous activities are growing in popularity as a form of leisure and recreation, yet many non-participants find it difficult to understand what motivates people to seek out situations in which there is an element of danger and risk. This research examines the meanings of long-term participation in outdoor adventure for women working in…

Fifteen college students having no prior experience with abseiling completed a simple 80-foot abseil after indoor instruction. Students' sensation-seeking scores were weakly and negatively related to somatic anxiety immediately prior to the abseil. Enjoyment of the abseil had a weak positive relationship to sensation seeking and a weak negative…

The School of Physical Education at Chichester Institute (England) has developed an outdoor and adventurous activities (OAA) program that trains teachers to optimize the full potential of the outdoors as classroom. The philosophy underpinning the OAA program challenges the traditional view that exposure to adventure necessarily results in…