Abstract
Community gardens offer numerous benefits, but there are also potential risks from exposure to chemical contaminants in the soil. Through the lens of the Theory of Planned Behavior, this mixed methods study examined community gardeners’ beliefs and intentions to conduct heavy metal soil testing. The qualitative component involved five focus groups of community garden leaders in Atlanta, Georgia. Qualitative analysis of the focus group data revealed that heavy metal soil contamination was not frequently identified as a common gardening hazard and several barriers limited soil testing in community gardens. The focus group results informed the development of a questionnaire that was administered to 500 community gardeners across the United States. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the soil testing intention was associated with attitude (aOR = 2.46, 95% CI: 1.34, 4.53), subjective norms (aOR = 3.39 95% CI: 2.07, 5.57), and perceived behavioral control (aOR = 1.81, 95% CI: 1.10, 2.99). Study findings have implications for interventions involving community garden risk mitigation, particularly gardens that engage children and vulnerable populations.
Highlights
Community gardens are growing in popularity and are associated with an array of positive outcomes [1,2,3]
Participants described salient beliefs related to risk perception of soil contaminants; advantages/disadvantages of soil testing to inform attitude and behavioral beliefs; advocates and opponents of soil testing to inform normative beliefs and subjective norms; barriers and facilitators to soil testing to inform control beliefs and Perceived behavioral control (PBC)
For all contextual variables, the reference value was set at the most frequent category. Findings from this mixed methods study illustrate that the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) serves as a relevant framework for examining how community gardeners decide whether to test their soil for heavy metals
Summary
Community gardens are growing in popularity and are associated with an array of positive outcomes [1,2,3]. The American Community Gardening Association estimates that there are over. Practitioners and academics from public health, urban planning, education, environmental management, and sustainability sectors investigate and promote community garden benefits [4,5]. Heavy metals are naturally-occurring, high density elements with widespread accumulation and non-biodegradability in soils [8]. Based on their toxicity and potential for human exposure, heavy metals such as lead and cadmium are ranked among the top 10 hazardous substances of public health concern by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the World Health
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