Social Groups as a Basis for Assessing Participation in Selected Water Activities

Abstract

Recreation research has relied on social aggregate variables like occupation, income, education, age, and marital status, almost entirely as a basis to predict demand for given activities. This is especially true for many studies completed on specific recreational sites where only participants are considered. However, once nonparticipants have been eliminated from consideration in the analysis, the major source of statistical difference measured by social aggregate variables has been removed, resulting in the failure of these variables alone to explain participation. An analytic strategy is proposed in which a social group variable might be employed in conjunction with social aggregate variables to enhance the measurement of participation in leisure activities. This report is a revision of a paper presented at annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society in Baton Rouge in 1972. Research for the report was supported in part by the National Park Service and the State of Washington Water Research Center. Funding was provided by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Water Resources Research as authorized under the Water Resources Research Act of 1964 through the State of Washington Water Research Center, project OWRR A-047-Wash. and the National Park Service.