Coping in Outdoor Recreation: Causes and Consequences of Crowding and Conflict Among Community Residents

Abstract

Displacement, product shift, and rationalization are coping mechanisms that can be adopted in response to crowding and conflict in outdoor recreation. Using survey methods, this study found relatively high levels of adoption of coping mechanisms by residents of communities in and around Acadia National Park, Maine in response to perceived increases in 1) overall recreation use levels, 2) selected recreation activities and 3) selected problem behaviors. While only 7.4% of respondents reported that they no longer use the carriage roads because of the changes in use that have occurred, nearly all respondents (94%) reported adopting one or more behavioral or cognitive coping mechanisms. Study findings suggest that coping may be pervasive in outdoor recreation, that coping includes behavioral and cognitive mechanisms, and that coping is related to perceived changes in both the amount and type of outdoor recreation. High levels of coping as found in this study may be stressful at the individual level, may lead to diminished diversity of outdoor recreation opportunities at the societal level, and suggests that overall “satisfaction” may be a superficial and even misleading measure of quality in outdoor recreation.