Racial equity facilitators of active outdoor recreation in parks and protected areas: Scale development, testing, and validation

Abstract

Active outdoor recreation (AOR) can provide valuable benefits, but racial inequities can constrain participation for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Despite their potential value for park managers, limited attention has been given to assessing and understanding factors which can facilitate more equitable AOR participation. This national study included the development, testing, and validation of a new scale focused on facilitators of AOR in local parks and protected areas, including both general and racial equity oriented intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural facilitators. The scale performed well in a racially and ethnically diverse sample, exhibiting strong fit in confirmatory factor analysis, measurement invariance by race/ethnicity, gender, income, and participation status, and expected relationships with constraints, negotiation, motivations, and participation frequency. Findings demonstrate the potential utility of the scale as a tool for identifying effective and equitable facilitation strategies and examining the unique contributions of facilitators in the constraint negotiation model.

Keywords:

• Constraints
• environmental justice
• facilitators
• negotiation
• systemic racism

Ethical approval

The study was approved by The Pennsylvania State University’s institutional review board, approval number STUDY00020609.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).