Then and Now: Examining Older People's Engagement in Outdoor Recreation Across the Life Course

ABSTRACT

Outdoor recreation provides a range of health and wellbeing benefits and facilitates engagement with natural environments. We explore older people's participation in outdoor recreation throughout their lives to examine how past experiences shape engagement later in life. A qualitative life history approach, consisting of semi-structured interviews and a focus group in three place-specific (urban, rural, and small town coastal) case studies in Scotland, was adopted. Thematic analysis revealed ways in which childhood experiences shaped adult engagement and highlighted life course transitions where behaviour change was most pronounced. Place and gender were considered as factors which may affect responses. Participants identified the points of getting married, becoming a parent, children entering adolescence, retirement, the onset of disabilities or ill health, and the death of others as “moments of change” in the extent and/or form of their outdoor recreation. The findings highlight potential for targeted interventions to promote outdoor recreation throughout life.

KEYWORDS:

• ageing
• greenspace
• green exercise
• life course transitions
• moments of change

Acknowledgments

This paper was funded by the Rural & Environment Science &Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government. Thanks to Dr. Anke Fischer for providing an early review of the project. Thank you to all the participants in the research for sharing their time with us.