Forest recreationists’ characteristics and their quality of life levels

Abstract

The contributions of forest recreation to individual wellbeing or quality of life have been the topic of exploration among researchers for a long time. However few studies have examined the relationships between recreationists' characteristics and quality of life. The overall purpose of this study was to investigate whether urban forested park visitors' personal characteristics influenced their quality of life levels. The sample of 936 visitors to nine urban forested parks was surveyed during the summer of 2010. The results of this study revealed that there were some positive relationships between visitors' characteristics (i.e. age, education and experience levels) and their quality of life levels. © 2011 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.