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It examines how the breadth and intensity of girls’ outdoor exposure in Girl Scouts’ outdoor programs relate to challenge seeking, with implications for out-of-school time programs for girls’ development.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/girls-challenge-seeking-how-outdoor-exposure-can-support-girls-in-taking-positive-risks/590453/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/girls-challenge-seeking-how-outdoor-exposure-can-support-girls-in-taking-positive-risks/590453.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Pentious","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":30},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"How does the paper define challenge seeking?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"Challenge seeking is defined as a set of beliefs and behaviors that propels individuals to initiate and persist in difficult ventures.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"Why are outdoor OST programs considered useful for girls’ challenge seeking?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"Outdoor experiences can present authentic and unavoidable challenges and risks that require children to become more self-aware, cooperate, communicate, and solve problems.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"What dimensions of outdoor exposure does the study examine?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"The study focuses primarily on the breadth and intensity of girls’ involvement in Girl Scout outdoor programming.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},590453,1792456969,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,91,95,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":30,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":123,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},1374404730887,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","Girls’ Challenge Seeking  \nHow Outdoor Exposure Can Support Girls in Taking Positive Risks  \nKallen Tsikalas and Karyn L. Martin  \nChallenge seeking is an important component of children’s personal and academic development. Defined in this paper as a set of beliefs and behaviors that propels individuals to initiate and persist at difficult ventures, challenge seeking is a key indicator of mastery goal orientation. This orientation has been linked with a number of positive and adaptive behaviors. For instance, research shows that individuals who pursue mastery goals are more likely than others to value cooperation,  \nseek help when confused, and use deeper learning strategies such as monitoring their comprehension and actively trying to integrate new information with prior knowledge. They are also more likely to negotiate decisional ambiguities and experience positive emotions (Dweck, 1986; Grant & Dweck, 2003; Senko, Hulleman,& Harackiewicz, 2011) .  \nIn Girl Scouts, challenge seeking is an essential element of leadership—a key to girls’ discovery of themselves and their worlds. In moving beyond their  \npersonal and interpersonal comfort zones, girls learn their strengths and values as well as ways to interact with others. Enabling girls to seek challenges in the world involves helping them to “develop positive attitudes toward learning, seek opportunities for expanding their knowledge and skills, set challenging goals, and take appropriate risks”(Girl Scouts of the USA, 2008, p. 28) .  \nDespite the importance of challenge seeking, Girl Scouts have not typically reported high levels of this outcome. A recent national evaluation, for example,  \nKALLEN TSIKALAS, Ph. D., is a senior researcher with the Girl Scout Research Institute, Girl Scouts of the USA. She evaluates how and how well Girl Scouting is achieving its mission and provides strategic insights for the organization. With a doctorate in educational psychology, she also teaches at Hunter College and studies social and motivational factors that help adolescents succeed.  \nKARYN L. MARTIN, Ph. D., is director of council initiatives and research for Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, where she is responsible for research and outcomes measures for the council’s 32,000 girl members. She collaborates on national studies with the Girl Scout Research Institute and has published research conducted in partnership with Simmons College on career aspirations of middle school students.  \nfound that only about 40 percent of Girl Scouts in grades 4–8 consistently endorsed positive responses, such as “agree” or “agree a lot,” to statements about taking positive risks (Tsikalas & Martin, 2014) . These findings mirror those from other Girl Scouts of the USA studies (Tsikalas & Barnett, 2012) . Compared to other Girl Scout leadership outcomes, such as developing a strong sense of self or cooperation and team building, girls are considerably weaker at challenge seeking.  \nOutdoor experiences often entail authentic tasks that have the potential to foster girls’ challenge seeking. For this reason, we used survey data to explore how the breadth and intensity of their exposure to outdoor activities affected Girl Scouts’ challenge seeking. Our findings have implications for practice not only for Girl Scouts but for any out-of-school time (OST) program committed to girls’ development.  \nThe Outdoors as a Context for Developing Girls’ Challenge Seeking  \nOutdoor OST programs may play a special role in cultivating children’s challenge seeking, as nature often presents authentic and unavoidable challenges and risks (Kellert, 2005) . Authentic challenges in the outdoors can be physical, cognitive, psychological, or social: negotiating a set of whitewater rapids, figuring out how to light a campfire in the rain, dealing with spiders, or taking the chance that others will judge you when you try a physically awkward activity, like rock climbing. These challenges frequently require young people to bec","cbCaiemiJbLLFGdQ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiemiJbLLFGdQ","pdf",204206,"English","# Challenge seeking and mastery goal orientation\n## Challenge seeking in Girl Scouts\n# The outdoors as a context for developing girls’ challenge seeking\n## Authentic challenges and risks\n## Dimensions of OST exposure (breadth, intensity, engagement)\n## Study focus and aims","[{\"question\":\"How does the paper define challenge seeking?\",\"answer\":\"Challenge seeking is defined as a set of beliefs and behaviors that propels individuals to initiate and persist in difficult ventures.\"},{\"question\":\"Why are outdoor OST programs considered useful for girls’ challenge seeking?\",\"answer\":\"Outdoor experiences can present authentic and unavoidable challenges and risks that require children to become more self-aware, cooperate, communicate, and solve problems.\"},{\"question\":\"What dimensions of outdoor exposure does the study examine?\",\"answer\":\"The study focuses primarily on the breadth and intensity of girls’ involvement in Girl Scout outdoor programming.\"}]","Girls’ Challenge Seeking - How Outdoor Exposure Can Support Girls in Taking Positive Risks | PDF",1792069661,25]