A supportive environment can help facilitate participation in outdoor activities, and lead to greater life satisfaction among elderly populations. Using Personal Projects as a framework to understand the activities that are salient to individuals, this paper focuses on the role that a supportive environment can play in the types of outdoor projects undertaken by older people and the subsequent relationship with their life-satisfaction. Personal Projects are the self generated and purpose-oriented activities an individual is doing or planning to do (Little, 1983). The efficacy achieved in the pursuit of these activities has been found to be related to an individual's well-being. Within this the environment can play a greater or lesser supportive role depending on the nature of the project undertaken. It is therefore possible, by examining projects and their environmental dependency to understand the environmental contribution to well-being. Using data from two phases of the I'DGO TOO (Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors 2) study this paper reports the relationship between measures of Supportiveness of the Natural Environment (SNE) and Life Satisfaction (CASP-19). Supportiveness of the Natural Environment (SNE) scores are calculated based on a personal project questionnaire designed to capture everyday activities that involve being outdoors, related to any aspect of daily life (e.g. home, leisure and community) and undertaken alone or in the company of others. Participants listed out of home projects and rated these according to importance, supportiveness of the environment, and enjoyability. Projects are categorised into four types: Nature-based, Utilitarian, Recreational and People-related for analysis. Overall the results show that an environment supportive of undertaking outdoor personal projects important to individuals is associated with greater life satisfaction, particularly for nature-related projects.

The importance of a supportive environment for older people's outdoor projects in predicting life satisfaction / Curl, A; Ward-Thompson, C; Aspinall, P; Alves, Susana. - In: JOURNAL OF AGING AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. - ISSN 1063-8652. - 20:(2012), pp. S41-S42.

The importance of a supportive environment for older people's outdoor projects in predicting life satisfaction

Alves, Susana
2012

Abstract

A supportive environment can help facilitate participation in outdoor activities, and lead to greater life satisfaction among elderly populations. Using Personal Projects as a framework to understand the activities that are salient to individuals, this paper focuses on the role that a supportive environment can play in the types of outdoor projects undertaken by older people and the subsequent relationship with their life-satisfaction. Personal Projects are the self generated and purpose-oriented activities an individual is doing or planning to do (Little, 1983). The efficacy achieved in the pursuit of these activities has been found to be related to an individual's well-being. Within this the environment can play a greater or lesser supportive role depending on the nature of the project undertaken. It is therefore possible, by examining projects and their environmental dependency to understand the environmental contribution to well-being. Using data from two phases of the I'DGO TOO (Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors 2) study this paper reports the relationship between measures of Supportiveness of the Natural Environment (SNE) and Life Satisfaction (CASP-19). Supportiveness of the Natural Environment (SNE) scores are calculated based on a personal project questionnaire designed to capture everyday activities that involve being outdoors, related to any aspect of daily life (e.g. home, leisure and community) and undertaken alone or in the company of others. Participants listed out of home projects and rated these according to importance, supportiveness of the environment, and enjoyability. Projects are categorised into four types: Nature-based, Utilitarian, Recreational and People-related for analysis. Overall the results show that an environment supportive of undertaking outdoor personal projects important to individuals is associated with greater life satisfaction, particularly for nature-related projects.
2012
Outdoor Activities; Life-Satisfaction; Wellbeing; Quality of Life
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
The importance of a supportive environment for older people's outdoor projects in predicting life satisfaction / Curl, A; Ward-Thompson, C; Aspinall, P; Alves, Susana. - In: JOURNAL OF AGING AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. - ISSN 1063-8652. - 20:(2012), pp. S41-S42.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1421656
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