Recreation in the Outdoors—Exploring the Friluftsliv Experience of Adolescents at Residential Care

Abstract

Providing recreational activities is an important aspect of the intervention at residential care. We explore adolescents’ experience of outdoor recreational activities organized by the care workers in the context of friluftsliv (literally: free-air-life). Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological method is used to analyze eight interviews with adolescents from residential care homes. Our analysis reveals that their experience of friluftsliv is made up of three constituents, described as Departure from everyday life, Shared experience, and Facing a different existence. Our discussion investigates the qualities and challenges related to friluftsliv as recreational activities at residential care and relates to the literature on nature-based interventions in child and youth care.