Dimensions Of Place Attachment Research Articles

Examining the direct and indirect effects of environmental change and place attachment on land management decisions in the Hill Country of Texas, USA

Urbanization has increasingly encroached upon many rural landscapes. The increased demand for development, and associated increase in land prices and property taxes has forced many rural landowners to subdivide or sell their property and led to adverse impacts on important ecosystem functions supported by rural landscapes. However, there has been limited research on how, in the face of such changes, landowners’ attachment to their property may affect their intention to retain their property, and effort invested to sustain important ecosystem features and enhance their land management capacity. Our study examined how landowners’ evaluation of change interacted with three dimensions of place attachment (place functions/features, place emotion/identity, and social bonding) to influence their intention to retain their rural property and engage in property-protective behaviors. The study was conducted with a sample of landowners whose properties in the Texas Hill Country were impacted by urbanization from the nearby metropolitan area. Model testing was conducted based on latent variable scores. The results revealed that evaluation of urbanization-related change primarily interacted with respondents’ place emotion/identity to influence their intention to retain their property. Additionally, evaluation of change and place attachment also directly influenced intention and behaviors pertaining to respondents’ property. Our research suggests the need to focus on landowners’ attachment to their rural property as a mechanism for promoting ecologically sound land management. Moreover, the needs to understand how landowners perceive urbanization, inform them of potential impacts, and provide resources to enhance their environmental skills to cope with such changes are also recommended.

Differentiating Place Attachment Dimensions Among Proximate and Distant Visitors to Two Water-Based Recreation Areas

People–place studies suggest that groups have varied bonds to a resource and that these bonds likely vary by residential proximity; however, previous research that explored these differences by residence treated place attachment as unidimensional. Therefore, this study differentiates two place attachment dimensions (place identity and place dependence) among distant (nonresidents) and proximate (community residents) visitors to two water-based resources in Illinois. Findings reveal both similarities and differences among visitors. Although proximate and distant visitors exhibited overall similar patterns in the place attachment scales, results delineate place identity as the differentiating place attachment dimension for this resource. Specifically, place identity was stronger and significantly different for proximate versus distant visitors. Findings suggest that recreation settings offer proximate as well as distant visitors the opportunity to develop meanings with a place and highlight the importance of examining differences in place attachment dimensions among proximate and distant visitors.

The influence of place attachment, and moral and normative concerns on the conservation of native vegetation: A test of two behavioural models

This study examines the influence of place attachment, values, beliefs and personal norms about environmental action on the conservation of native vegetation in two primary production settings in South Australia. We use regression and multiple mediation analyses to test a base model of pro-environmental behaviour which includes variables from value-belief-norm (VBN) theory and then compare it to an expanded model which includes the same variables and five dimensions of place attachment. The expanded model including place attachment explained up to twice the amount of variance in native vegetation planting than the base model when controlling for all variables preceding behaviour, but the overall explanatory power was low (<22%). Place attachment had a stronger influence on the antecedents of behaviour compared with the behaviour itself, particularly nature bonding which was a significant moderate predictor of both personal norms and awareness of consequences in the two study regions. We assert that place attachment has statistically significant direct and indirect effects on variables included in VBN theory. Future studies may reveal stronger effects in settings where there are fewer resource and monetary costs associated with pro-environmental behaviour.

The Effects of Place Attachment, Hypothetical Site Modifications and Use Levels on Recreation Behavior

This study integrates place attachment dimensions into a travel cost model utilizing stated preferences for various hypothetical scenarios involving site development and changes to current use levels at a Bureau of Land Management Special Recreation Management Area. We examine changes in intended behavior contingent on hypothetical scenarios and varying levels of place identity and dependence. Results suggest trip behavior to the area will either remain the same or decline in frequency given each of the hypothetical scenarios. The analysis also revealed visitors' level of place identity was significantly related to intended trip behavior while place dependence was not. These findings reveal travel cost modeling approach can incorporate both stated preferences and psychometric scaling to provide useful information for resource managers.

The relations between natural and civic place attachment and pro-environmental behavior

The relation between place attachment and pro-environmental behavior is unclear. Studies have reported that place attachment is associated both with more and less pro-environmental behavior. To help clarify this, we distinguished two dimensions of place attachment: civic and natural, and explored their respective influences on pro-environmental behavior. A community sample of residents ( N = 104) from two proximate towns with different environmental reputations reported the strength of their civic and natural place attachment, their performance of various pro-environmental behaviors, and a number of sociodemographic characteristics. Regression analyses revealed that natural, but not civic place attachment predicted pro-environmental behavior when controlling for the town, length of residence, gender, education and age. This demonstrates that research and theory on place attachment should consider its civic and natural dimensions independently.

Defining place attachment: A tripartite organizing framework

Place attachment has been researched quite broadly, and so has been defined in a variety of ways. The various definitions of the concept are reviewed and synthesized into a three-dimensional, person–process–place organizing framework. The person dimension of place attachment refers to its individually or collectively determined meanings. The psychological dimension includes the affective, cognitive, and behavioral components of attachment. The place dimension emphasizes the place characteristics of attachment, including spatial level, specificity, and the prominence of social or physical elements. In addition, potential functions of place attachment are reviewed. The framework organizes related place attachment concepts and thus clarifies the term. The framework may also be used to stimulate new research, investigate multidimensionality, create operational definitions for quantitative studies, guide semi-structured interviews for qualitative studies, and assist in conflict resolution for successful land-use management.

Connecting Visitors to People and Place: Visitors’ Perceptions of Authenticity at Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona

This study examines the effect of visitors’ characteristics, motivations and sense of place attachment on perceptions of authenticity at a cultural heritage site. Data were collected in summer and fall 2006 through an on-site survey questionnaire administered to a random sample of visitors to Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona ( n = 379; 76% response rate). The most important motives for visiting were ‘To enjoy nature’ and ‘To experience Navajo culture’. Additionally, visitors perceived a strong sense of place identity but a weaker sense of place dependence. Preservation of the archaeological resources was the most important contributor towards an authentic experience, followed by learning about customs and values of local people, meeting local people and visiting with an authorised Navajo guide. Attending interpretive programmes contributed the least. Results show that motivation to experience Navajo culture, the place identity dimension of place attachment, educational attainment, age and past experience at the monument had significant effects on the perception of an authentic experience at the monument. Place identity emerged as the strongest predictor of perceptions of authenticity, suggesting that a strong emotional bond is an important factor in visitors perceiving a site to be authentic. As visitor motivations for learning about the Navajo culture increased, so did perceptions of authenticity. Higher age also led to increased feelings of authenticity. As education levels and prior experience increased, perceptions of authenticity decreased.

Effects of Place Identity, Place Dependence, and Experience-Use History on Perceptions of Recreation Impacts in a Natural Setting

It is generally accepted that recreation use in natural environments results in some degree of negative social and environmental impact. Environmental managers are tasked with mitigating the impact while providing beneficial recreation opportunities. Research on the factors that influence visitors' perceptions of environmental and social conditions is necessary to inform sound environmental management of protected natural areas. This study examines the effect of prior experience with the setting and two dimensions of place attachment (i.e., place identity and place dependence) on visitors' perceptions of three types of recreation impacts (i.e., depreciative behavior, environmental impacts, and recreation conflict). Principal components analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were used to test the study hypotheses using data collected from 351 visitors through on-site questionnaires (response rate of 93 percent). The results show that prior experience exhibited a moderate and significant direct positive effect on place identity, place dependence, and visitors' perceptions of recreation impacts. Contrary to study hypotheses and prior research, neither place dependence nor place identity exhibited a significant effect on the dependent variables. The results show that prior experience causes visitors to be more sensitive to depreciative behaviors, environmental impacts, and recreation conflict. These findings raise concerns over potential visitor displacement and deterioration of site conditions. Implications for resource managers are discussed, which include education, modifying visitor use patterns, and site design strategies.

Examining State Dependence and Place Attachment Within a Recreational Fishing Site Choice Model

Many contexts including the fidelity that recreationists have for sites may affect the choices of recreational sites by individuals. This study expands the choice model research on state dependence by examining state dependence at site and larger spatial scales. Analyses of recreational fishing site choices by anglers from northern Ontario, Canada suggest that anglers exhibit state dependence at both the site and larger spatial scales. Attempts to understand the importance of state dependence through self reports of place attachment dimensions among the anglers provided mixed results. No significant relationships were found between place identity and the importance of site or spatial state dependence to anglers. While having no significant effect on site state dependence, place dependence was positively associated with the importance of spatial state dependence among approximately 65% of the anglers. Evidently, anglers who viewed themselves as dependent upon a fishing area were more likely to take their fishing trips in a constrained space than were other anglers. These conclusions are influenced by the difference between the larger spatial scale for the place attachment questions (i.e., favorite fishing area) than for the choice model (i.e., fishing site).

Crowding and Experience-Use History: A Study of the Moderating Effect of Place Attachment Among Water-Based Recreationists

Effective recreation resource management relies on understanding visitor perceptions and behaviors. Given current and increasing pressures on water resources, understanding crowding evaluations seems important. Beyond crowding, however, variables that possibly relate to or influence crowding are of interest and in particular, place attachment and experience-use history (EUH). As EUH is related to place attachment and likely affects crowding, this study explored the moderating effect of place attachment dimensions on the relationships between EUH and visitor crowding evaluations. Water based recreationists at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers site were contacted onsite and asked questions related to experience-use history, crowding evaluations, place attachment, and activity participation. Anglers and campers at the site identified similar crowding perceptions and place attachments. Only one of eight models tested revealed a moderating effect. Specifically, place identity moderated the relationship between the total times visited in the past twelve months and expected crowding among anglers. As such, the quest continues to understand the relationship among these important variables.

Increasing customers' loyalty in a skiing resort

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is three‐fold: first, to propose a model for measuring service quality in a skiing resort; second, to investigate the contribution of place attachment on the prediction of customers' loyalty, and third, to examine the influence of service quality on the development of place attachment.Design/methodology/approachA total of 264 (n=264) recreational skiers participated in the study, and filled the two‐dimensional place attachment questionnaire and a service quality questionnaire, which was based on Brady and Cronin's three‐dimensional service quality model (physical environment quality, interaction quality, outcome quality).FindingsThe results of the study indicate that skiers' loyalty was significantly predicted by both the place attachment dimensions (place identity and place dependence). Furthermore, place attachment was significantly predicted by the interaction and physical environment service quality dimensions.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was limited because it was based on one skiing resort. Testing it on many would give a more accurate result. Expansion of the theoretical model in other tourist destinations would also provide a more accurate result.Practical implicationsStrategies to develop customer loyalty and for the development of place attachment are discussed. A model of measuring service quality in skiing resorts is presented.Originality/valueThe paper proposes a model for measuring service quality in skiing resorts. It also introduces the construct of place attachment and its value for predicting customer loyalty.

Linking place preferences with place meaning: An examination of the relationship between place motivation and place attachment

Using data collected from residents surrounding a large urban park setting, we examined the relationship between their motivation to visit the park and their attachment to the setting. Based on the literature suggesting that natural environments provide humans with a variety of desired psychological, social, and physiological outcomes, we hypothesized that these outcomes would motivate respondents to interact with the park environment and facilitate the development of their attachment to the setting. Our data were analysed using covariance structure analysis. The results of this analysis offered partial support for our hypothesized model. Using multidimensional conceptualizations of motivation and place attachment, we observed that not all dimensions of motivation had a significant effect on the dimensions of place attachment. The valence of the significant predictors, however, was consistent with our hypotheses and prior literature.

Effects of place attachment on users’ perceptions of social and environmental conditions in a natural setting

Research on place attachment has provided insight on the diversity of meanings humans associate with the physical environment. We provide further insight on the nature of human–place bonding by examining place attachment's effect on respondents’ perceptions of social and environmental conditions along the Appalachian Trail (AT) in the United States. Using a social judgment framework, our results indicated that the two dimensions of place attachment, place identity and place dependence, had opposing effects on the condition domains. For all condition domains, as respondents’ scores on the place identity dimension increased, they were more inclined to perceive the condition encountered as problematic. The opposite pattern of relations was observed for place dependence. These results indicate that the two dimensions of place attachment, while moderately and positively correlated, examine different sources of meaning for AT hikers.

The Measurement of Place Attachment: Validity and Generalizability of a Psychometric Approach

Abstract To enhance land managers' ability to address deeper landscape meanings and place-specific symbolic values in natural resource decision making, this study evaluated the psychometric properties of a place attachment measure designed to capture the extent of emotions and feelings people have for places. Building on previous measurement efforts, this study examined the validity and generalizability of place attachment across measurement items, places, and dimensions (place dependence and place identity) of attachment. Colorado State University students (n = 65) rated four forest-based recreation sites on two dimensions of place attachment. In addition, data from a sample of University of Illinois students (n = 380) and visitors to Shenandoah National Park (n = 2005) and Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area (n = 369) were analyzed and compared to the Colorado sample. Confirmatory factor analysis of these four data sets demonstrated that subjects distinguish between two dimensions of attachment and assign different levels of attachment to the different areas. Generalizability analysis of the Colorado data provided additional evidence for the two-dimensional structure and suggested that each attachment dimension can be reliably measured with as few as four questionnaire items. Convergent validity was supported through analyses of the relationships between the place attachment measures and both behavioral and psychological variables predicted to be related to place attachment.

An Examination of the Relationship between Leisure Activity Involvement and Place Attachment among Hikers Along the Appalachian Trail

The place attachment construct has been used by leisure researchers and practitioners to refine our understanding of certain leisure behaviors for over two decades. Despite the construct's importance to natural resource-based leisure, little empirical work has appeared in the leisure literature examining the construct's antecedent processes; that is, the processes that lead to recreationists'; attachment to settings. This study examined one antecedent, activity involvement, using covariance structure analysis. The authors examined a model suggesting that place attachment (i.e., place identity and place dependence) would be predicted by activity involvement (i.e., attraction, centrality, and self expression) among four groups of hikers along the Appalachian Trail (i.e., day hikers, overnight hikers, section hikers and through hikers). Using LISREL's multigroup procedure, results indicated that the place identity dimension of place attachment was best predicted by the self expression and attraction dimensions of activity involvement, whereas the only predictor of place dependence was self expression. These relations were consistent for all hikers. Type of use (i.e., day hiker, overnight hiker, section hiker and through hiker), however, was shown only to moderate the correlation between activity involvement dimensions, attraction and self expression, and place attachment's place identity and place dependence. As hikers' activity involvement and attachment grew, the correlations between these constructs declined. This result indicates that these scales' discriminant validity improves as respondents more readily identify with the attitude object used in the item wording.

Satisfaction derived through leisure involvement and setting attachment

This investigation examined the effect of activity involvement and place attachment on leisure satisfaction among three groups of hikers along the Appalachian Trail (AT). The three groups differed in the type of setting they perceived they had visited along the AT; wilderness, semi‐wilderness, and undeveloped recreation area (p<.05). It was hypothesized that the opportunity to enjoy the activity and setting would be sources of satisfaction among respondents. It was also hypothesized that these effects would be strongest among wilderness hikers. Results indicated that only the attraction dimension of activity involvement and place identity dimension of place attachment were significant predictors of hikers’ satisfaction (p<.05). Further, the type of setting visited did not impact the strength of these effects. These results illustrate that the intrinsic elements of the activity and setting can be a source of satisfaction alone.

Level of Specialization and Place Attachment: An Exploratory Study of Whitewater Recreationists

Level of specialization among whitewater recreationists and their attachment to a popular whitewater recreation river in the western United States, the South Fork of the American River, were investigated. Level of specialization was based on individuals' response to a specialization index consisting of 21 different items theoretically linked to level of specialization. Three levels of specialists were identified. Further, dimensions within level of specialization were analyzed to determine their relationship to each place attachment dimension. Attachment was measured by means of a place attachment scale (Moore & Graefe, 1994; Williams & Roggenbuck, 1989). Using principal-components analysis, three place attachment dimensions were identified and named: place dependence, place identity, and lifestyle. A relationship was noted between level of specialization, subsequent dimensions, and place attachment dimensions (i.e., experience level, centrality to lifestyle, involvement, skill level, and expenditure level). High specialists were more likely to agree with the importance of place identity and lifestyle than were medium and low specialists. Place dependence was not influenced by level of specialization. When controlling for type of boater (i.e., rafter or kayaker) and type of trip (i.e., private, nonprofit, or commercial), rafters' level of agreement with the place identity dimension increased with level of investment, centrality, and experience, regardless of type of trip. And, rafters' level of agreement with the lifestyle dimension increased with their level of experience, regardless of type of trip. Overall, however, the results of this study indicated that respondents were relatively neutral about their dependence on the river, with the exception of kayakers with low centrality and experience.