Outdoor environmental supportiveness and older people’s quality of life: a personal projects approach

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2016
Authors
Curl A
Ward Thompson C
Alves S
Aspinall P
Abstract

We present an approach to exploring the role of environmental supportiveness in contributing to older people's quality of life (QoL), based on Little's ecological model (2010) in which individual and situational factors influence the personal projects of salience to individuals. Personal projects are self-generated and purpose-oriented activities or goals in which an individual is engaged (Little, 1983). The efficacy with which the pursuit of these activities is achieved depends on the nature of the project and the degree to which it is supported by external factors such as the environment. We explore the relationship between the outdoor environment and QoL, drawing on the concept of “environmental support” as presented by Sugiyama and Ward Thompson (2007a). There is a positive relationship between the number of outdoor personal projects older people participated in and measures indicative of their QoL. The relationship between perceived environmental support and QoL measures was significant in projects invol ving nature but not for other project types.

Description
Citation
Keywords
personal projects, outdoor activity, quality of life, elderly
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Fields of Research::44 - Human society::4410 - Sociology::441016 - Urban sociology and community studies
Field of Research::12 - Built Environment and Design::1205 - Urban and Regional Planning
Fields of Research::44 - Human society::4406 - Human geography::440608 - Recreation, leisure and tourism geography
Rights
© Angela Curl, CatharineWard Thompson, Susana Alves and Peter Aspinall This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.