This study looked at the impact of Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare longitudinally on youth participants as reported by their parents. It filled a gap in the research by including a Treatment as Usual (TAU) comparison group. Findings showed that youth participants one-year post attending Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare treatment as reported by their parents were functioning within a normative, non-clinical range, while youth who remained in their communities, were still at acute levels of psychosocial dysfunction as measured by the Youth Outcome Questionnaire. Despite some differences between the means of the treatment and TAU groups across time between genders and age groups, a regression analysis revealed age and gender not to be significant predictors of improvement. The only significant predictor was participation in the treatment group which improved on average 36 points more than youth in TAU.
