Ethnicity, Acculturation, Self-Construal, and Motivations for Outdoor Recreation

• Published in: Leisure sciences Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 263 - 283
• Main Authors: Walker, Gordon J., Deng, Jinyang, Dieser, Rodney B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Informa UK Ltd 01-10-2001
• Subjects: Acculturation; Crosscultural Differences; Ethnicity; Leisure; Motivations; Outdoor Recreation; Personality Traits; Race; Self Concept; Self-CONSTRUAL
• ISSN: 0149-0400; 1521-0588
• DOI: 10.1080/01490400152809115

Research on the leisure of racial and ethnic groups has recently been criticized for a variety of different reasons. In response to some of these concerns, this article examines the motivations of outdoor recreationists who identify themselves as being Chinese ( n = 53); it compares their motivations with those of Euro-North Americans ( n = 180) at the same outdoor setting; and it does so using the construct of self-construal as an intervening variable between ethnicity, acculturation, and motivations for outdoor recreation. According to Markus and Kitayama (1991), individuals with independent self-construals value being unique, expressing themselves, and promoting their own goals, whereas individuals with interdependent self-construals value belonging, fitting in, and promoting others' goals. Furthermore, although people in or from Western Europe and North America are more likely to have independent self-construals, people in or from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Southern Europe are more likely to hold interdependent self-construals. On the basis of the above, a series of regressions were conducted. Results suggest that (a) ethnicity does affect both types of self-construal; (b) ethnicity does affect four outdoor recreation motivations directly, although this relationship is usually, but not always, mediated by self-construal; (c) ethnicity does affect four other recreation motivations indirectly, either through the interdependent self-construal or through both types of self-construal; and (d) with Chinese respondents, acculturation did affect one recreation motivation directly and, through the independent self-construal, two other motivations indirectly.