Performing Department
School Of Natural Resources
Non Technical Summary
Parks and outdoor recreation resources are key environmental resources that can confer numerous psychological, physiological, social, economic, and environmental benefits upon individuals and communities. Notably, parks and outdoor recreation facilitate health cost-savings (e.g., from physical activity and stress relief) that can contribute to the prevention of chronic conditions such as depression, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Parks provide numerous opportunities for physical activity through outdoor recreation and are widely acknowledged as key components of healthy communities. However, there is significant potential to increase physical activity participation among the large numbers of people who use parks and engage in outdoor recreation. Maximizing this potential requires an accurate understanding of the availability and quality of park and outdoor recreation facilities, and tools to engage diverse stakeholders in evaluating, improving, and accessing information about these important public resources. Paradoxically, improvements to parks and greenspace development are also associated with gentrification, through increases in the costs of living and thereby displacing residents. Therefore, a challenge in developing green infrastructure is to make public parks and outdoor recreation resources accessible to maximize community benefits, while limiting threats associated with gentrification. Finally, it is critical to recognize that despite the numerous health benefits, park visitors face numerous climate-change related threats, including to physical and mental health. It is necessary to understand visitors fears related to potential climate change health impacts, and how they may shape visitor intentions and behaviors.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
80%
Developmental
10%
Goals / Objectives
Therefore, the goal of this research project is to contribute to improving the potential of parks and greenspace in providing health benefits to society, while addressing and limiting potential challenges. Specifically, the project objectives are to:Examine the influence of theory-based physical activity messages in outdoor recreation settings on park users' physical activity attitudes, intentions and behavior.Develop the eCPAT app and related system in order to satisfy the demands of a multitude of interested shareholders/stakeholders, and gather feedback on the value, content and feasibility of the eCPAT system.Investigate perceptions and preferences related to parks and outdoor recreation greenspace development to provide benefits while reducing threats of gentrification.Examine climate-change related health concerns of Missouri State park visitors, and investigate how these issues may impact visitor behavior.
Project Methods
This proposal uses a mixed methods approach to address the four objectives. Objective 1 uses a quasi-experimental, pre-post design with random assignment of matched parks to either the intervention/treatment or control conditions. Observations, accelerometer data, visitor surveys and neighborhood surveys will be collected to examine the impact of PODP messages in parks. Park-based physical activity will be measured using the System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities, which also captures park use (McKenzie et al., 2006). Park-based physical activity will also be collected with a sub-sample of park users using Actigraph GT1M accelerometers. Finally, surveys of park users and neighboring residents will be used to gather perceptions of and intentions to engage in physical activity. Data collection will occur in Kansas City, Missouri and Greenville, South Carolina. Objective 2 involves developing and advancing the eCPAT mobile technology and infrastructure, as well as feasibility testing of the system with diverse user groups. Half day workshops with four user groups (park and recreation professionals, parks and public health researchers, health care professionals, and citizens) will include introducing the system along with focus groups and surveys to examine usability of the eCPAT system, changes in park awareness and value of parks for promoting health, and perceived value of and intentions to use the eCPAT system. Workshops and data collection will occur in Kansas City, Missouri and Greenville, South Carolina.Objective 3 has two components. The first component is a city-wide survey examining perceptions of parks and greenspace, social capital, and gentrification world views. The second component is in-depth interview data from residents living proximate to greenspace development, examining their perceptions of urban parks and greenspace, and preferences for greenspace development. Data collection for this objective will be conducted in St. Louis, Missouri. Due to significant, on-going population loss and economic decline since the mid-twentieth century, St. Louis has been termed a "shrinking city" (Cox, 2011). Underutilized land within shrinking cities is a rich resource with ecological potential (Anderson & Minor, 2017) that offers opportunity for the enhancement of green infrastructure within the urban core (Haase, 2013; Hall, et al., 2017).Objective 4 also includes interview and survey data from visitors to Missouri State Parks. Interviews assess the perceptions of climate change impacts and climate related health threats, as well as agency roles in climate change mitigation, education, and communication using a small sample of state park visitors. Onsite visitor intercept surveys collect data across 20 of Missouri's state parks and historic sites. The self-administered tablet- and paper-based questionnaires examine climate change belief, perceived impacts, and climate-related health risks and concerns.