Improving Research Designs in Therapeutic Recreation

This paper describes three experimental designs that may be used to help therapeutic recreation researchers to explore more adequately the effects of their treatments: the randomized block design, the split plot design) and the hierarchical design. These  designs seem particularly well suited to the problem of sorting out the effects of treatments and potentially confounding variables in therapeutic recreation settings. The paper includes a description of each design, along with an example of an experiment that might be conducted using each design. In addition, the need for increased use of such designs in therapeutic recreation is discussed.