A Narrative Identity Approach to Understanding Meaning-making in Summer Camp Employment

Abstract

Summer camp is a common seasonal employment setting for emerging adults in North America (American Camp Association, 2016), and although scholars have suggested that camp can be a developmental setting for youth participants (e.g., Garst et al., 2009), far less is known about camp as a developmental employment setting that supports emerging adults’ identity development (Johnson et al., 2011; Povilaitis & Sibthorp, 2022; Warner, Godwin, et al., 2021). Using narrative identity as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this study was to understand if there were differences in evidence of identity-salient meaning-making between emerging adults’ accounts of camp employment and non-camp employment, as well as examine the developmental characteristics of camp employment linked to how emerging adults make meaning about these experiences. To this end, one narrative about camp employment and one narrative about non-camp employment were collected from emerging adults who had worked at least one summer at a camp (N = 67). The results suggested there was more complex meaning-making in participants’ camp employment narratives compared to their non-camp employment narratives. The results also revealed that when participants reported having supportive coworkers and feeling they made a difference their narratives contained more evidence of meaning-making than the narratives of participants that did not report these characteristics. The results provide support for camp employment as a developmental setting by identifying characteristics linked to the meaning emerging adults draw from their experiences working in this setting. Camp administrators may use these results as evidence of the potential non-monetary value of camp employment. Further, these results suggest that when emerging adult staff perceive their camp employment as having a supportive social environment and providing them opportunities to make a difference, the seasonal employment experience is more likely to become an experience that supports their development. These key findings can be used to communicate the value of camp employment to potential employees and those advising them, such as parents or mentors; further, increasing the perceived value of camp employment amongst current staff members only serves to bolster the advocacy for camp work as a developmental setting.