Who cares and who acts? Different types of outdoor recreationists exhibit different levels of environmental concern and behavior

Abstract

The relationship between a person's level of environmental concern and behavior, and their participation in different types of outdoor recreational activities has been a matter of study for approximately 25 years. However, most of the research occurred in the mid- to late seventies and, until recently, there has been relatively little research performed since then. A recent study notes that the weak associations found in earlier studies between environmental concern/behavior, and outdoor recreation participation may explain the drop in research effort. We revisit the issue because it has important policy dimensions. The results generally support the idea that participation in outdoor recreation can have a significant positive impact on the level of environmental concern and behavior. In addition, the level of environmental concern and behavior depends upon the type of recreational activity. The general trend is that appreciative activities, such as wildlife watching and nature photography, are consistently associated with higher levels of environmental concern and behavior. However, the relative effects of the different .recreation activities differ across our measures of environmental concern and behavior. Thus, the idea that the direction of the effects is consistent across alternative measures is not supported.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 2001 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium

Citation

Teisl, Mario F.; O'Brien, Kelly. 2002. Who cares and who acts? Different types of outdoor recreationists exhibit different levels of environmental concern and behavior. In: Todd, Sharon, comp., ed. 2002. Proceedings of the 2001 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-289. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. 168-174.