Who cares and who acts?: Outdoor recreationists exhibit different levels of environmental concern and behavior

Abstract

The relationship between a person's level of environmental concern/behavior and his or her participation in outdoor recreation has been a matter of study for approximately 25 years. However, previous research, primarily using correlation techniques on local/state data, provides only weak or inconsistent results. The authors use a nationally representative sample and probability models to reanalyze this issue. The results support the idea that participation in outdoor recreation is positively associated with environmental concern/behavior. In addition, the level of concern/behavior depends on the type of recreational activity. However, the relative effects of the different recreation activities differ across the measures of environmental concern and behavior. Thus, the idea that the direction of the effects is consistent across alternative measures is not supported.