Evaluating Household-Level Relationships between Environmental Views and Outdoor Recreation: The Teton Valley Case

Abstract

Outdoor recreation may foster positive environmental views among participants and their nonparticipating household members, but little research has addressed this hypothesis at the household level. We address this gap with a case study evaluating both the individual-and household-level relationship between outdoor recreation and environmental views using the new ecological paradigm scale (NEP). Results suggest NEP relates positively to appreciative outdoor recreation participation and negatively to nonappreciative outdoor recreation participation for participants and their household members. Future research should focus on how household dynamics mediate the relationship between environmental views and outdoor recreation.

Keywords:

• attitudes
• ATV
• environmentalism
• environmental view
• hunting
• Idaho
• NEP
• outdoor recreation

Acknowledgements

We thank anonymous reviewers for constructive criticism in the preparation of this manuscript. Funding and support were provided by Michigan State University, Middle Tennessee State University, North Carolina State University, NSF and the Budweiser Wildlife Conservation Scholarship. We owe a debt of gratitude to S. Peterson and K. Vickery for their interviewing efforts, T. Peterson for coaching interviewers, W. and M. J. Peterson for finding the location of households with only P.O. boxes, and most of all the people of Teton Valley for sharing their perspectives and homes with our research team.

Notes

^acases where recreation activities of respondents and non-respondent household members match

^bcases where recreation activities of respondents and non-respondent household members do not match