Summer camp as context for girls’ and women’s same-sex attractions and relationships

Abstract

This article focuses on the leisure activity of summer camp as a context that nurtured the development of 23 female camp participants’ romantic or sexual attractions toward and relationships with other females. Results of analysis of oral surveys with participants indicated that five aspects of the camps nurtured the development of these participants’ attractions toward and relationships with other females: (a) enabling significant time spent with others, (b) generating emotional intensity, (c) occurring during key developmental periods while embedded in a youthful context, (d) including climates with low levels of homophobia and heteronormativity, and (e) including climates that challenged gender expectations. Findings from this exploratory project add to the literature on aspects of youth leisure contexts (specifically camp), extend the concept of social development in leisure research to romantic development, and broaden the literature on couple formation in leisure contexts. Implications for research and practice are discussed.