Outdoor Recreation and the Predictive Validity of Environmental Attitudes

The utility of the attitude concept in outdoor-recreation research rests upon its predictive validity, that is, an ability to predict subsequent behavior. This study examines the moderating and mediating effects of participation in 3 types of outdoor recreation activities (appreciative, consumptive, and motorized) on environmental attitude-behavior correspondence. A mediating effect occurs if participation accounts for the relation between attitude and behavior. A moderating effect occurs if the attitude-behavior relationship changes as a function of participation. 1,220 respondents to a telephone interview of households in the Southern Appalachian region of the US were asked about their participation in a selection of outdoor recreation activities and their environmental behaviors and were randomly assigned to one of 5 general environmental attitude scales. Results support a significant mediating effect for appreciative outdoor activities only. Findings are interpreted within the context of attitude accessibility, and implications for generating proenvironmental behaviors are provided.