Camp Ophelia: a relationship camp for middle school girls

Camping Magazine, March-April, 2005 by Cheryl Dellasega

Since middle schoolers are beginning to grasp abstraction and "thinking about thinking," art can provide an excellent opportunity for bridging thoughts and feelings with reality.

Although many public and private schools have implemented excellent anti-bullying programs, aggression continues to be a leading concern among children and those who care for them. In particular, girls fear Relational Aggression (RA), sometimes dubbed "female bullying" (GSUSA 2003). RA encompasses a range of behaviors that use relationships instead of physical violence to hurt another (Dellasega & Nixon 2003). Involvement in RA, whether as the aggressor, victim, or bystander can lead to many adverse outcomes for young women. Two especially tragic stories include a girl who committed suicide after being verbally bullied (Glazier 2004) and a school shooting that erupted after a year of ongoing RA (CNN 2001).

The notion of "mean girls" who use words and behavior as weapons against each other has spawned at least two bestselling books (Wiseman 2003; Simmons 2003) and a blockbuster movie. A summary of common forms of RA reported by girls and adults and portrayed in the media is contained in the sidebar.

Any adult involved in the social interactions of young women has seen RA because it can occur whenever and wherever girls are together. Sports teams, religious organizations, neighborhood gatherings, and summer camps have all been settings for aggressive girl-to-girl behavior. School nurses, athletic coaches, guidance counselors, camp counselors, and administrators are often frustrated by covert RA behaviors used by girls to hurt their peers in and out of school, online and off, at home and away. These damaging RA interactions often fall "under the radar screen" of traditional anti-bullying programs and can be difficult to address. In a recent workshop one guidance counselor asked: "What is the penalty for eye rolling?"

Any effective prevention/intervention strategy for RA needs to be based on an understanding of why girls might use relationships to hurt each other. During the middle school years, when RA seems to peak, girls are engaged in the developmental process of identity formation, which makes them intensely aware of their ability to impact the lives of others (Muus 1996). They may even seem to reject their families in favor of friends as they seek to develop an adult identity (McCarthy 2000). (Boys follow a somewhat different course.)

The desire for peer approval and acceptance can motivate young women to act in healthy or hurtful ways, either as individually or in groups. Harmful RA-type relationships can be a consequence of low self-esteem, jockeying for position on the social ladder, lack of understanding, or the pursuit of drama and excitement (Dellasega & Nixon 2003). Summer camps offer an excellent opportunity to immerse girls in a learning environment focused exclusively on peer relationships. Two studies confirm that the camp environment can effectively address issues of self-concept and moral growth (Chenery 1981; Bredemeier, Weiss, Shields, et al. 1986). Hairston and Garst (2004) have concluded that camps are the ideal context for addressing bullying, which is a group dynamic and social problem best suited for comprehensive rather than one-time interventions.

Emotion Expression and the Arts

At Camp Ophelia[TM], an innovative program to address RA, art is an integral part of the curriculum. The American Art Therapy Association (1985) suggests that the arts can be used to both help children engage in healthy social behavior and increase receptivity to learning. Another expert believes that art offers an alternative "language" for adolescents to express their emotions (Malchiodi 2003). Since middle schoolers are beginning to grasp abstraction and "thinking about thinking," art can provide an excellent opportunity for bridging thoughts and feelings with reality (Stepney 2001).

Throughout their time in camp, the arts-based curriculum uses a variety of mediums (writing, photography, drama, visual art, music, and pottery) to help girls identify, cope with, and overcome RA. Several informed observers at camp have noted that using art in this way is a very effective strategy for facilitating emotion expression in girls.

Mentoring

As part of identity formation, adolescent girls are especially vulnerable to the influence of other women in the environment. An unfortunate case of negative role modeling occurred in summer 2004, when a twelve-year-old girl was beaten into a coma by her peers after the mother in charge of a birthday party urged them to do so (Hall 2004).

Mentoring is an alternative that provides positive role models for youth. Usually such programs focus on academics, careers, or personal development (Floyd 1993) and often, college students or even young adults are the ones to act as mentors and role models (NMP 1991).

A key feature of Camp Ophelia is the use of young women who are juniors and seniors in high school on a 1:5 ratio, mentoring all-girl groups of campers. Adult camp directors who have a counseling background are present for backup support and to facilitate large and small group activities. The mentors are trained through a program specific to relationship skills, provided with ongoing supervision during the face-to-face time with campers, and led through an intensive "debriefing" with the directors at the end of each day.