Green Grass in Urban Parks Are a Necessary Ingredient for Sedentary Recreation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18666/JPRA-2024-11983Keywords:
Parks, sedentary recreation, grass, Australia, SOPARCAbstract
Public health research tends to focus on park amenities that promote physical activity as an indicator of healthy community design. The leisure disciplines argue for a broader approach highlighting the physiological, psychological, and social benefits of park-based activities. We hypothesize that parks offering avenues for active recreation may be better utilized if they offer opportunities for relaxation before/after physical activity, as a standalone leisure activity, or other amenities for adults accompanying active children to relax and socialize. To test this hypothesis, in May 2016, we observed sedentary recreation (such as reading, lying down, or sitting) in a centrally located park based on colonial landscapes within the City of Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia using the validated System for Observing Play and Recreation in a Community (SOPARC) protocol; and an accompanying high-resolution landcover dataset to explore correlates of sedentary recreation. Specifically, we were interested in the demographic characteristics, the time, the place within the park, and landcover features of the places where people engaged in sedentary recreation. We found that 68% of adults visiting the park were engaged in sedentary recreation which peaked between 12-2 p.m. We also found that sedentary recreation was significantly associated (p<0.05) with a greater percent of grass in an area. Our findings are consistent with the propositions of attention restoration and socialization theories of greenspace utility. We conclude that parks should be designed to offer adequate amenities for leisure in addition to physical activity perhaps through the provision of adequate greenspaces.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Sagamore Publishing LLC (hereinafter the “Copyright Owner”)
Journal Publishing Copyright Agreement for Authors
PLEASE REVIEW OUR POLICIES AND THE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT, AND INDICATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS BY CHECKING THE ‘AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS COPYRIGHT NOTICE’ CHECKBOX BELOW.
I understand that by submitting an article to Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, I am granting the copyright to the article submitted for consideration for publication in Journal of Park and Recreation Administration to the Copyright Owner. If after consideration of the Editor of the Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, the article is not accepted for publication, all copyright covered under this agreement will be automatically returned to the Author(s).
THE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT
Assignment of Copyright
I hereby assign to the Copyright Owner the copyright in the manuscript I am submitting in this online procedure and any tables, illustrations or other material submitted for publication as part of the manuscript in all forms and media (whether now known or later developed), throughout the world, in all languages, for the full term of copyright, effective when the article is accepted for publication.
Reversion of Rights
Articles may sometimes be accepted for publication but later be rejected in the publication process, even in some cases after public posting in “Articles in Press” form, in which case all rights will revert to the Author.
Retention of Rights for Scholarly Purposes
I understand that I retain or am hereby granted the Retained Rights. The Retained Rights include the right to use the Preprint, Accepted Manuscript, and the Published Journal Article for Personal Use and Internal Institutional Use.
All journal material is under a 12 month embargo. Authors who would like to have their articles available as open access should contact gbates@sagamorepub.com for further information.
In the case of the Accepted Manuscript and the Published Journal Article, the Retained Rights exclude Commercial Use, other than use by the author in a subsequent compilation of the author’s works or to extend the Article to book length form or re-use by the author of portions or excerpts in other works.
Published Journal Article: the author may share a link to the formal publication through the relevant DOI.
Author Representations
- The Article I have submitted to the journal for review is original, has been written by the stated author(s) and has not been published elsewhere.
- The Article was not submitted for review to another journal while under review by this journal and will not be submitted to any other journal.
- The Article contains no libelous or other unlawful statements and does not contain any materials that violate any personal or proprietary rights of any other person or entity.
- I have obtained written permission from copyright owners for any excerpts from copyrighted works that are included and have credited the sources in the Article.
- If the Article was prepared jointly with other authors, I have informed the co-author(s) of the terms of this Journal Publishing Agreement and that I am signing on their behalf as their agent, and I am authorized to do so.