Contributions of Time, Format, and Subject to Variation in Recreation Experience Preference Measurement

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to estimate the extent to which time of measurement, scale format, and item domain introduce variance into the measurement of Driver's (1977) recreation experience preference (REP) scales. Subjects were 68 students taking wilderness courses from the National Outdoor Leadership School during the summer of 1985. Students received a precourse and postcourse questionnaire which included multiple item measures of the following REP domains: achievement, leadership, nature, escape social pressure, and escape physical pressure. “Time” was measured at two levels: immediately precourse and immediately postcourse. “Format” was measured at two levels: “reasons” for participating and “outcomes” of participating. Results indicate that time and format introduce little variance, but REP domain, subject, and subject by domain interaction are important sources of variance. The large subject by domain variance component suggests that recreation experience preferences may be more of an individual trait than a changing preference state.

KEYWORDS:

• Variance components
• reliability
• recreation experience preferences
• motivation
• satisfaction