The context of place: Issues measuring place attachment across urban forest contexts

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, forest managers and researchers have been encouraged to incorporate place attachment into their projects and decision-making. Place attachment measures indicate the strength of the human-place bond and provide insight as to why people are attached, thus informing management decisions and approaches to visitor and community relations. Place-attachment scales have been modified and translated across the globe with an assumed measurement equivalence. This assumption may present issues when comparing data collected across different contexts and implementing results based on those findings. This project assessed place attachment measurement among visitors to urban forested areas in Austria and Minnesota. Confirmatory factor analyses assessments of equivalent structure, factor loading pattern, and intercepts between samples revealed that place-attachment scales, as currently used, may not measure identical conceptualizations across contexts. As such, their use without critical examination could lead to inappropriate interpretations of and actions taken related to place attachment.