The organized camp experience has been an important part of the lives of children, youth, and adults for over 150 years. The camp experience is a way for young people to explore and search for an authenticity often missing in other parts of their lives that contributes to their healthy transition into adulthood. Over the past decade, tremendous growth in the volume and rigor of camp-related research has occurred, facilitated by a targeted research agenda conducted by the American Camp Association. This agenda was founded on three national research projects conducted between 2003 and 2007: a study to identify the developmental outcomes of the camp experience, a benchmarking study of the youth development supports and opportunities provided through camp experiences, and a program improvement project directed toward enhancing supports and opportunities provided by camps. The findings from these research projects suggest that camp experiences promote developmental outcomes in both campers and staff and that camps provide the supports and opportunities needed for positive youth development. This article explores the developmental outcomes of the camp experience and the characteristics of the supports and opportunities afforded by camp experiences, including settings, structures, and programs and activities, as a way to provide a clearer understanding of camp as a positive youth development setting. Innovations and opportunities in research related to the provision of quality camp experiences are also considered.

A number of leisure researchers have indicated that women believe that they have no right to leisure and this belief places a severe limitation on their construction of time for leisure and their attitudes toward leisure. This conceptual article describes entitlement and related background research, offers some reasons why the sense of a lack of entitlement might be so pervasive among women, concludes through an exploratory pilot study that the priority of leisure in a woman's life may be an important aspect of entitlement, and offers suggestions concerning how women may gain empowerment through a sense of entitlement to leisure within their lives. This article raises questions that require further pursuit by other researchers who are attempting to understand more completely the meaning of leisure for women and the constraints that may prevent a full realization of one's potential for leisure.

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