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This study explores connections between design features of faculty-led short-term study abroad programs and resulting changes in students' global perspectives. Over 2,000 students provided data for this study, completing the Global Perspective Inventory (GPI) before and after studying abroad. Results indicated that program features such as participation in an internship and opportunities for reflection are positively associated with global perspective development while abroad, whereas features such as number of students traveling together and coursework in English are negatively associated with such development. Given the increasing numbers of students who participate in faculty-led short-term abroad programs, research that provides evidence-based recommendations concerning program design is essential to enhancing global perspectives through study abroad.

Study abroad is believed to be a transformative learning experience for students. However, the extent to which study abroad adds value beyond what is possible on campus needs to be demonstrated. In this paper, we document the learning outcomes assessment undertaken by a faculty-led study-abroad program at a large university in the U.S. Southeast. Specifically, we describe the development of a theory-based pedagogical model of global citizenship for short-term study abroad and efforts to document student learning associated with its constructs. The results of these efforts indicate that when student learning outcomes and study-abroad pedagogy are aligned with theory, and rigorously assessed, the opportunity to demonstrate learning is possible, and opportunities for instructional improvement present themselves.

Human activities, including the movement of harvested cervids, pose significant risks for spreading chronic wasting disease (CWD) to new locations. This study used hierarchical agglomerative clustering to compare Minnesota, USA hunters' carcass disposal habits and likelihood of CWD testing as a function of individual differences in risk perceptions and hunting area. We utilized a survey of Minnesota hunters conducted during Spring 2020 that included a random sample of individuals that hunt statewide and in a local disease management zone (N = 5,000, response rate = 33%). We did not detect a significant difference in disposal behaviors as a function of CWD risk perceptions, but rather because of increased accessibility of low-risk disposal methods. Conversely, we found perceived likelihood of conducting CWD testing was positively associated with perceptions of risk. These findings have implications for vector tracing for future CWD outbreaks and highlight the benefit of understanding constituent habits and regulation compliance in disease management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study extended a framework based on self-determination theory (SDT) and leisure constraints to study identity salience in lapsed hunters. Self-determination theory suggests that multiple forms of motivation influence levels of self-determination and addresses how social-contextual factors affect satisfaction of needs. Data were drawn from a survey of recently lapsed hunters in Minnesota, United States conducted during the winter of 2021 (N = 5,000) with an overall response rate of 22%. Results suggested that socio-contextual constraints were negatively associated with intrinsic motivation and support amotivation. Intrinsic motivation was positively associated with identity salience, while amotivation had a negative influence, which suggests that when the experience supports the satisfaction of an individual’s basic psychological needs, they are more likely to integrate hunting as part of their identity. These findings have implications for recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) efforts and highlight the importance of social-contextual factors and motivation in the context of hunting participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transactional model of stress and coping (TMSC) provides a conceptual framework for understanding adaptations to stressors like chronic wasting disease (CWD). Understanding hunter response to stressors is important because decreased participation and satisfaction can affect individual well-being, cultural traditions, agency revenue, and local economies. Using TMSC, we explored how deer hunters coped with CWD. We also compared involvement, and impacts and emotions related to CWD, inside and outside a CWD management zone. Then we examined coping related to CWD presence, and if the disease affected human health. Most hunters would cope using product shift (i.e., eating meat after a negative test result) rather than displacement (i.e., hunting elsewhere) or dropout. Hunters who may be displaced reported lower involvement in deer hunting, and increased worry about CWD. Results suggest that CWD information and testing may increase hunter worry. Funding expanded testing without prompting displacement or dropout are important management considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our results suggest that hunters in the Minnesota CWD management zone had higher perceptions of risk related to deer herd health than hunters in adjacent DPAs and hunters in Illinois. Keywords: Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD); Perceived Risk; Deer Hunting EN Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Perceived Risk Deer Hunting 503 506 4 10/06/21 20210901 NES 210901 The social, ecological, and institutional context is important for understanding individuals' perceptions of risk (Slovic, [2]) and their trust in agencies tasked with risk management (Cvetkovich & Winter, [1]). [Extracted from the article]

Despite an influx of ecotourism research since the term was first coined, it is still not entirely clear why tourists choose ecotourism over other tourism experiences. While most of the previous literature assumes that ecotourism is preferred by travelers for moral reasons, emerging evidence suggests that opportunities to project one's social status are increasingly salient factors in decision-making about travel. This article compares the relative influence of two possible predictors of ecotourism intention: environmental values (measured through the value-belief-norm theory) and symbolic conspicuous consumption (measured through expected social return). Respondents were drawn from a panel of U.S. tourists who had taken an overnight trip within the last year (n = 786). Results of a structural equation model suggest that both personal norms (β = 0.22, p < 0.001) and social return (β = 0.60, p < 0.001) explain a considerable amount of variance in ecotourism intention (R2 = 0.44), with social return having the stronger influence. These results suggest that environmental values are not the sole reason for travelers' choice of ecotourism alternatives, and that ego-enforcing motives play an important role. The positive and negative implications of demand for ecotourism extending beyond those with strong environmental values are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation has long been implicated as an antecedent to place attachment among recreationists. Research has framed this association around expectancy theory, suggesting that the realization of preferred modes of experience leads to a positive evaluation of a setting (i.e., attachment). In this study, we tested an alternative hypothesis rooted in self-determination theory, which purported that place attachment arises from the realization of human needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. We tested this hypothesis using structural equation modeling with data from a study of visitors to wilderness areas in the southeastern United States. Results support the proposition that perceptions of a landscape supporting autonomy, relatedness, and competence are associated with identification, dependence, and emotional connection with that landscape. Reframing the association between motivation and place attachment around psychological needs furthers the generalizability of results and highlights the importance of wilderness as a context for self-determined thought and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal conservation behavior and compliance with natural resource regulations are important to wildlife conservation. We examined how waterfowl-hunting involvement, motivations, satisfaction, and experience, along with institutional trust and demographics, correlated with support for waterfowl regulations and personal conservation actions. Regulations included zones, split seasons, and motorized decoys, while conservation behaviors addressed hunter recruitment, along with donations, volunteering, and voting in ways to support wildlife conservation. Results suggested that agency trust was positively related to support for regulations but negatively related to personal conservation behaviors. An increased orientation to harvest waterfowl was negatively related to both support for regulations and conservation behaviors. Education, income, Ducks Unlimited membership, and days hunting were positively related to personal conservation behavior. Results may help managers work cooperatively with hunters and conservation groups to support wildlife conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing wildlife in landscapes under private ownership requires partnership between landowners, resource users, and governing agencies. Agencies often call on landowners to voluntarily change their practices to achieve collective goals. Landowner support for management action is partially a function of normative beliefs about managing wildlife. Understanding factors that support development of normative beliefs is important for program design, with implications beyond deer. Drawing on norm activation theory, identity theory, and community attachment, we hypothesized that landowners' ascription of responsibility to manage deer were a function of their identity as a wildlife steward and attachment to their community. We tested our hypotheses using structural equation modeling with data from a survey of southeast Minnesota landowners. Results revealed ascribed responsibility to be a function of identity. In turn, identity was predicted by affect toward the community. Findings suggest community-based approaches to wildlife management could improve goal achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional trust and perceptions of regulatory efficacy can affect support for management. This study examined how institutional trust, specific trust related to information/management, and support for/perceived efficacy of current regulations related to deer hunters' attitudes about chronic wasting disease (CWD) management. Results are from a survey of southeastern Minnesota deer hunters from the 2018 season, and suggest acceptance of agency management by a majority of hunters. However, a substantial minority of hunters who perceived the management approach was "too aggressive" believed all CWD regulations were ineffective and opposed regulations other than mandatory disease testing and carcass movement restrictions. Results suggest that a lack of shared values, along with greater trust in agency CWD information and technical competence, correlated with perceiving the management approach as "too aggressive." Future research is needed to understand the contextual nature of trust and how different elements of trust relate to acceptability of management actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing wolf populations are a concern for wildlife managers in the Midwestern U.S. Understanding the psychological mechanisms that contribute to public perceptions of risk will enable development of strategies that seek to mitigate these risks, and suggest where outreach efforts may facilitate acceptance of wolves. We examined the psychological factors that influence Illinois residents' perceived risks from wolves. We hypothesized that individuals' perceived risks from wolves were a function of their attitudes toward wolves, negative affect toward wolves, and basic beliefs about wildlife. Data were obtained from a survey of the Illinois public (n = 784). Negative affect and attitudes toward wolves were direct predictors of perceived risks. Basic beliefs predicted attitudes and negative affect toward wolves. Negative affect predicted attitudes. Basic beliefs had direct and indirect effects on perceived risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of the relationships among psychological constructs such as values and motivations that influence proenvironmental behavior provides public land management agencies with guidance on how to minimize stakeholder impacts on the environment. A rich body of research has demonstrated that values form a tripartite structure underlying environmental concern, encompassing biospheric, egoistic, and altruistic values; however, recent work has suggested hedonic values are also an instrumental basis for environmental concern. Few studies have tested this proposition. We contend that hedonic values are instrumental in explaining the psychological processes that gird individual decisions, particularly in nature-based settings where stakeholder decisions are compelled by leisure pursuits. Our results indicate that place-based motivations, particularly escape from the pressures of everyday life, can help close the prominent value–action gap and explain why outdoor recreationists engage in minimum-impact activities specified in the U.S. Leave No Trace educational outreach program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]