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Charity sporting events (CSEs) are special events, focused on a cause, with an added element of physical activity, and operate with the goal to raise funds, awareness, and garner support for an organization's cause. CSEs have become increasingly meaningful and popular in recent years among various nonprofit organizations. Using the psychological continuum model (PCM) as the theoretical framework, this study examined the factors that contribute to participants' motivation. This mixedmethod study included a postevent questionnaire that was administered to participants in a cycling event (N =104) to investigate the relationships among recreation and charity motives, event attachment, and behavioral intention. Also interviews (N = 58) were conducted examining motives. Results revealed that recreation and charity motives both have a significant impact on event attachment, but slightly more so for this small-scale event than a large event. Implications for management and future research were discussed.

The Pacific Crest Trail is a National Scenic Trail that runs from Mexico to Canada. Use of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) has increased in the past 20 years. It is important to understand how an increase in use can impact the environment and sustainable practices, land management practices, and the hiker experience. Participants included 15 land managers in California and 25 thru-hikers who completed the PCT. In-depth interviews were conducted, and participants were asked questions about hiker interactions, trail angels, land manager interactions, and the permitting process. Data were transcribed verbatim and coded by three independent coders to reach a 90% inter-rater reliability. Emerging themes included: human impacts, permitting and education, and rule enforcement. Hikers also talked about the benefits of in-person education and the need for consistent communication between thru-hikers and land managers. Recommendations for sustainable practices include improvements to the permitting system, education, enforcement, and communication.

In Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) Kahneman describes two modes of thinking: System 1 and 2. System 1 operates quickly, automatically, and unconsciously, drawing on our vast reservoir of stored know...

Automated devices dominate the daily experience for most people in the United States, and for many, nature offers a respite ripe with well-documented emotional, psychological, and physical benefits. However, opportunities with and access to open spaces can be limited by structural barriers that often create limits to engagement by people living in urban areas. A first stage of this project initiated with listening sessions and workshops with youth in urban and rural settings in southern and central California as a means of crafting effective marketing strategies designed by youth to engage young people of color with nature and open spaces. The second stage, reported here, was implemented to examine the effects of race/ethnicity and social media video messaging on Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) dimensions. Using a quasi-experimental design, panels of urban youth aged 12-16 in four California cities participated in an online panel survey. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three themed message groups generated from the content themes developed by youth during the workshops (escape and unplug, connect with family and friends, or discover and adventure) or a control group. The questionnaire included 11 items related to the TPB. Separate 4x4 ANOVAs with race/ethnicity and the treatments/control group as the independent variables and TPB dimensions as the dependent variables revealed an interaction effect for one perceived behavioral control item. There were also significant differences by race/ethnicity on all four TPB dimensions. Mean scores of the respondents who watched one of the three videos were higher than the control group for all 11 TPB items measured. TPB item scores among White and Black respondents were typically higher than scores for Asian and Latinx respondents. Results of a hierarchical regression analysis with race/ethnicity, treatments/control group, perceived behavioral control, attitudes, and social norms as the independent variables and behavioral intentions as the dependent variable suggested that attitudes and social norms were the strongest predictors of behavioral intentions. The results add significant value in the practical application of the intersection between automated devices and social media marketing for engaging underrepresented groups in the digital age. Subscribe to JPRA

This research reflection explores the relationship between biochemistry and human behavior. More specifically, it examines the implications associated with two neural pathways in the brain, one lea...

This study sought to understand motivations of individuals who offer unsolicited assistance to Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) thru-hikers. Referred to as “trail angels,” these individuals provide supportive services (e.g., food, drink, transportation, and lodging) along the 2,650-mile footpath as it passes through California, Oregon, and Washington. Their services have been documented in the literature on studies of thru-hikers, but the motives of trail angels have yet to be studied. To understand why trail angels provide free services, the authors developed an open-ended online survey and posted it to two trail angel Facebook group pages. The survey asked angels about reasons for serving as a trail angel, benefits accrued, and motivations to continue. Qualitative data were analyzed by independent coders. Emergent themes (n = 30) indicated that trail angels are motivated by joy in helping others, meeting new people, living vicariously through others, and sustaining a unique community. They also discussed negative impacts of trail angels. The themes are discussed in terms of empathic altruism and psychological egoism. Additional discussion focuses on implications for PCT management. Subscribe to JOREL

In this article, we discuss the limitations of grades as a measure of student learning. We also consider more robust measures that may be preferable to grades alone for assessing college students’ ...

The purpose of this study was to assess faculty perceptions of tenure in parks, recreation, and tourism. To answer our research questions, we designed a 26-item survey and posted it on The ...

In this paper we describe the role of parks, recreation, and tourism in health promotion. We begin by proposing a new definition of health that is rooted in an ecologically based worldview. Our definition sees human health and environmental health as being inextricably intertwined. Indeed, we see them as being one in the same. We then discuss ecological insights rooted in biomimicry that illuminate the kinds of contributions parks, recreation, and tourism professionals can make to health promotion. This application requires us to see ourselves, in the words of Aldo Leopold, as “plain members and citizens of a larger community of life” (Leopold, 1949, p. 224), citizens who recognize that we have much to learn from other species about how to live our lives in a manner that ensures a sustainable future for us all. We then place the principles of biomimicry into a larger global context by explicating a model of ecologically-based health promotion through which park, recreation, and tourism professionals might better understand how the work they do contributes to health promotion. We offer two examples--one international and one local—of what this work looks like in practice, emphasizing how they reflect the principles of biomimicry and an ecological model of health promotion. Finally, we invite readers to ponder the implications of what we propose for the work they do in parks, recreation, and tourism.Subscribe to JPRA

“Lessons from the Legends” is a series of 10 inspirational videos created for park and recreation classroom and staff training purposes. Each video depicts an important theme uncovered in a larger content analysis of a cross section of in depth interviews with park and recreation practitioners and educators selected as “Legends in Parks and Recreation” by the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration. We present each video’s script as an article with a link to its accompanying video that brings the story to life. Readers are invited to access the link and download the video for educational purposes as each article appears in “Legends and Legacies.” Subscribe to JPRA

Despite the mental and physical benefits of visiting natural areas, and increases in outdoor activity participation among U.S. youth overall in the past decade, outdoor access is skewed toward nonurban, nonminority populations. This environmental justice issue is particularly pronounced for minority youth in urban areas, such as the Los Angeles Basin. While decreased contact with nature has been associated with increased technology use, the popularity of new technologies and social media outlets presents novel opportunities to connect underserved urban youth with natural areas. Seven focus groups with 42 urban youth in the L.A. Basin explored underserved youth perspectives on connecting with nature, social media, and how social media can deliver nature-related messages of interest to this population. Content analysis revealed commonly preferred social media platforms and Web-based activities, and six themes related to participants’ perceptions of nature: unique experiences, escape, social connections, challenge, adventure, and accessibility. Subscribe to JOREL

In this research reflection we question the way leisure experience is commonly understood and how leisure science is commonly conducted. Specifically, we focus on advances in multiple self-theory popularized by Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow, an in-depth examination of human thought processes. After establishing Kahneman's foundational perspective, we apply his thinking to leisure experience and leisure science by reviewing recent scholarship focused on the “experiencing” and “remembering” selves (2000). We conclude the reflection by discussing the implications of Kahneman's thinking for the use of self-reports by leisure scientists, as well as call for greater congruence between the selves we seek to research and our selected research methods.

Sport management alumni (N=268) from five universities that offer undergraduate programs with an emphasis in sport management within departments of parks, recreation, and tourism were sampl...

Leisure is an important component of family life, yet many families struggle to focus on or participate in family leisure. This study examined the structural characteristics of family life that can impede or promote family leisure. Employing a systems perspective, a literature-based model of family leisure was created, and in-depth interview data were gathered from three families to compare to the model. Results indicated that while the content of the families' leisure varied, their leisure shared similar organizational properties; the need to negotiate constraints, increase focused interactions and decrease fragmented interactions to achieve higher-quality family leisure. The paper concludes with a discussion of the study's relevance to the existing family leisure literature, a description of a simplified model of optimal family leisure functioning based on the study's findings, implications for its application and suggestions for future research.

Engaging youth in traditional physical education exercises or ball sports can be a challenging task, especially when they prefer novelty, entertainment, or excitement in their leisure-time activities. In addition, many youth are unaware of the opportunities that exist to exercise or recreate in nature, often preferring to spend time indoors connected to screens and virtual realities rather than in the real world outside. This article describes how one public school physical educator addressed this problem by creating an outdoor recreation program as his charter school's physical education curriculum. He engages youth in novel experiences they are intrinsically motivated to try, such as kayaking, bicycling, indoor climbing, and overnight camping. By participating in these activities, students learn not only lifelong leisure activities, but also about safety, risk, decision making, problem solving, leadership, and communication skills while participating in physically demanding activities.

In this article, we turn the tripartite responsibility of teaching, scholarship, and service inside out. Rather than considering service to be a poor stepchild to scholarship and teaching, we reason that service as engaged scholarship should be the centerpiece of academic life, especially in an applied discipline like parks, recreation, and tourism. We reason further that improving engaged service should be the driving force behind good teaching, student learning, and scholarship. Finally, we reason that “impact factor,” a term commonly limited to citations in scholarly journals, should be expanded to include positive differences made on the ground in professional practice as well as scholarly presentations and publications that display the value of the scholarship of engagement and the scholarship on teaching and learning.

The purpose of this study was to better understand sport management students within departments of parks, recreation, and tourism, and to address the often uneasy fit faculty experience when trying...

This paper describes the Integrated Core (IC), the University of Utah's version of integrated curricula. We begin with a rationale for the IC, providing a background on the unique student d...

This article summarizes the content of a three-day administrative summit held at Zion Ponderosa Resort in southern Utah in late September 2010. Department chairs, heads, and deans representing 13 u...

In this essay, we examine the assumptions underlying natural science, social science, and the humanities. More specifically, we suggest that social science in general and leisure science in particular be guided by a different set of assumptions than those guiding natural science and the humanities. Drawing on the Aristotelian idea of phronesis, we propose that value rationality more so than instrumental rationality guide social scientific inquiry, and that social science in general, and leisure science in particular, be viewed as a bridge between natural science and the humanities.

This article stems from a conversation among academic leaders of graduate-oriented departments of parks, recreation, and tourism across North America who participated in an administrator summit at Zion Ponderosa Resort in southern Utah September 23-26, 2010. The University of Utah’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism hosted the summit, and among the many topics discussed was the need to strengthen the relationship between undergraduate professional preparation programs in parks, recreation, and tourism and graduate leisure studies. In many respects, the tension between undergraduate and graduate programs reflects the tension between research universities and the world of professional practice. We examine this tension in both contexts and recommend specific courses of action to relieve it.

In this article we examine sport and recreation's collaborative potential. We begin by identifying some differences between the two fields of study and by acknowledging what heretofore have been so...

Striving for a healthier relationship among individuals, families, communities, nations, and the environment is imperative at a time in history when humankind can change the face of the earth in monumental ways. This dynamic health relationship, with an emphasis on the contributions of parks, recreation, and tourism to health promotion, is the subject of this article. A broader conception of health that moves beyond human physical and mental health to include familial, communal, national, international, and global ecological health is called for, and a more comprehensive ecological model of health promotion, including consideration of health from a holistic ecological perspective, is presented. New directions for leisure research based on an ecological orientation to health promotion conclude the article.

Many undergraduate students struggle when asked to engage in critical thinking. One approach we have found useful in fostering critical thinking is scaffolding, a process that involves the ...

This paper challenges rhe co nvent io nal wisdom of departments of parks and rec reation raking spo rt management under their "wing." Based on a review of the sport management literature and a polling of s port management and park and recreation ed ucato rs, we argue that departments of parks and recreation are bur temporary refuges for migrarory sport management programs that eventually will want to build their ow n "nests." Efforts to accommodate sport management only se rve co undermine the mission of academ ic programs in parks and recreation by sapping resou rces, comp romis ing the educat ion of park and recreation majors, and erod ing pa rk and recreation facu lty members' sense of p rofessiona l purpose.

This paper reports lessons learned from sampling 68 of 119 videotaped interviews with the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration’s (AAPRA’s) Legends in Parks and Recreation. The videos contain great insight into the history of the organized park and recreation movement in the United States, as well as the administrative, educational, and philosophical positions of its leading administrators and educators. The examination was prompted by our interest in whether there might be patterns of foresight in the videos that could serve present and future park and recreation professionals. We examined each of the 68 videos in teams of two, searching for common themes. Using a three-phase content analysis, we discerned three broad categories within which to discuss the results: becoming extraordinary, being extraordinary, and serving an extraordinary profession. Within each of the three categories, we also discuss several emerging sub-themes. We conclude the paper by directing the reader to a video link that brings the Lessons from the Legends to life, and discussing educational use of the videos.

Foreword Part 1 The Context of Family Tourism 1 Introduction: Families in Tourism Research - Heike Schanzel 2 Society and Ideology: Changes in Family Time Perceptions with Implications for Tourism - Heike Schanzel 3 Family Tourism, Demography and Social Trends: An Analysis of the UK Market - Ian Yeoman, Una McMahon-Beattie, Damian Lord and Luke Parker-Hodds 4 UK Family Tourism: Past, Present and Future Challenges - Carol Southall Part 2 The Experiences of Family Tourism 5 The Inclusion of Fathers, Children and the Family Group into Tourism Research on Families - Heike Schanzel 6 VFR Travel: Why Marketing to Aunty Betty Matters - Elisa Backer 7 The Value of Social Tourism for Disadvantaged Families - Lynn Minnaert 8 The Stress of the Family Holiday - Elisa Backer and Heike Schanzel 9 Gay and Lesbian Families and Tourism - Howard Hughes and Carol Southall Part 3 The Futures of Family Tourism 10 Consumer Kids and Tourists: Creative Marketing a City to Young Tourists - Sally Webster 11 Investigating the 'Family Lifecycle' Model in Tourism - Elisa Backer 12 The Future of Families' Tourism: A Cognitive Mapping Approach - Ian Yeoman and Heike Schanzel