Investigating the Influence of Interpretation on Children's National Park Stewardship Behaviors Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model.

Vezeau, Susan

Interpretation efforts are commonly used in park and protected area management to communicate information about a place to visitors, and in some cases, are also intended to persuade visitors to engage in stewardship behaviors. The National Park Service (NPS) Junior Rangers (JR) programs are intended to develop a sense of stewardship within participating children; however, few studies have explored the effectiveness of these programs. In addition, despite considerable research investigating interpretation and its influence, further exploration of the factors that influence stewardship behaviors in participants of interpretation are needed. The purpose of this dissertation research was to: 1) develop scales to measure national park stewardship behaviors and elaboration in children, 2) examine the relationship between elaboration and the performance of national park stewardship behaviors, and 3) explore the influence of interpretation on youth participants’ (ages 8-13) national park stewardship behaviors and behavioral intentions through an evaluation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) JR program. GRSM, the site selected for this study, is the most visited national park in America, averaging over nine million visitors per year over the past twenty years (National Park Service, 2012). GRSM is also a park in which the NPS has invested a great deal of effort in providing visitor interpretation programs intentionally designed to enhance the visitor experience and support resource stewardship. One of the park’s most popular interpretation programs has been the JR program which aims to inspire youth participants to engage in national park stewardship behaviors (such as appropriate in-park behaviors), and to promote the transference of those behaviors to children’s homes and communities; however, no research had previously investigated the efficacy of the GRSM JR program. A communication theory known as the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) (Brown, Ham, & Hughes, 2010; Chaiken, Liberman, & Eagly, 1989; Petty & Cacioppo, 1981, 1986; Petty & Wegener, 1998) provided the theoretical foundation for surveys developed for this research. Survey data were collected during the summer of 2009 from two independent samples of GRSM visitors: 1) children (ages 8-13) who had not yet participated in the JR program, and 2) children (ages 8-13) who had completed the program and been sworn in as Junior Rangers. Results indicated that the GRSM JR program had significant immediate impacts on youth participants’ behavioral intentions and behaviors associated with national park stewardship. One longer-term positive effect was found pertaining to in-park stewardship behaviors while home and community behaviors returned to pre-visitation levels. The results suggest that interpretation programs, such as the GRSM JR program, have the potential to influence youth participants (ages 8-13) to engage in stewardship behaviors on-site, and to inspire intentions to participate in stewardship behaviors at home and in their communities. This dissertation makes a contribution to the field with the development of two new scales for measuring the outcomes of interpretation on youth participants (ages 8-13). The first scale is the stewardship elaboration scale (SES), which includes sub-scales to measure program participants’ interest and cognitive engagement in national park stewardship issues. The second scale is the national park stewardship behavior scale (NPSBS), comprised of sub-scales measuring in-park, home, and community behaviors, which supports the concept of national park stewardship behaviors as a complex mix of distinct behavior types. Finally it was found that individuals with enhanced awareness, interest, and cognitive engagement, which were combined to represent elaboration, predicted intentions to perform, and the performance of, national park stewardship behaviors.

Investigating the Influence of Interpretation on Children's National Park Stewardship Behaviors Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model.

Collections