“… the thought that I could flip and die today made me feel anxious”: A Study of the Experienced Emotions of Novice White-water Kayakers

Date
Authors
Schmidt, SK
Barker, M
Byrne, J
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Cappelen Damm AS - Cappelen Damm Akademisk
Abstract

Learning to white-water kayak often takes place in a stressful environment. This challenges participants’ experiences of the activity, causes emotional responses, and can affect their learning. The purpose of this study is to explore participants’ experienced emotions during an educational white-water kayaking programme. Fifty-eight outdoor students from New Zealand participated. The participants responded to a bespoke questionnaire exploring fleeting somatic arousal and emotion on five different occasions during a kayaking day. Participants’ emotions changed during the activity. Excitement was significantly higher than anxiety across the day. Anxiety was highest before starting the activity. No significant difference was found between the male and female participants’ emotions. A thematic analysis resulted in five themes describing the participants’ emotional experiences. Findings are discussed and related to theory and previous research. These findings present new insights regarding in-the-moment emotional perspectives during a white-water kayaking course for novices.

Description
Keywords
White-water kayaking; Anxiety; Learning; Adventure activities; Gender perspective
Source
Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.23865/jased.v6.3032
Rights statement
Copyright (c) 2022 Sabrina Krogh Schmidt, Matt Barker, Jennifer Bryne. Creative Commons License. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Authors contributing to Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education retain the copyright of their article but agree to publish their articles under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, for any purpose, even commercially, under the condition that appropriate credit is given, that a link to the license is provided, and that they indicate if changes were made. They may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses them or their use.