Ethnic factors and the use of public outdoor recreation areas: The case of Mexican Americans

Abstract This study investigated the effects of subculture, marginality, and perceived discrimination on use of selected public outdoor recreation areas. The assimilation perspective from the sociology literature provided theoretical guidance for the study. These concepts were treated as different types of social distance (cultural distance, socioeconomic distance, and intergroup distance). Each was hypothesized to affect the use of outdoor recreation areas. Data for this analysis came from telephone interviews conducted with 1057 households in Maricopa and Gila counties in Arizona. The analysis was conducted using a subsample of respondents of Mexican ancestry. The results support the socioeconomic, or marginality, hypothesis. There was less support for the subcultural, or ethnicity, hypothesis. There was no support for the perceived discrimination hypothesis. Research implications and recommendations are discussed.

[1]  Donald R. Field,et al.  Leisure And Recreation Places , 1976 .

[2]  John H. Aldrich,et al.  Linear probability, logit and probit models , 1984 .

[3]  S. T. Ortega,et al.  Dimensions of Ethnic Assimilation: An Empirical Appraisal of Gordon's Typology , 1990 .

[4]  A. Portes.  The rise of ethnicity: determinants of ethnic perceptions among Cuban exiles in Miami. , 1984, American sociological review.

[5]  Marta Tienda,et al.  The Hispanic Population of the United States. , 1988 .

[6]  A. Vedlitz,et al.  Social Distance among Racial and Ethnic Groups in Texas: Some Demographic Correlates , 1989 .

[7]  W. Gartner,et al.  Mexican‐American/Anglo cultural differences as recreation style determinants , 1990 .

[8]  M. Barron,et al.  Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion, and National Origins. , 1964 .

[9]  Edward Telles,et al.  Phenotypic Discrimination and Income Differences Among Mexican Americans , 1988 .

[10]  R. Hutchinson.  A critique of race, ethnicity, and social class in recent leisure-recreation research. , 1988 .

[11]  Douglas S. Massey,et al.  The Effect of Residential Segregation on Black Social and Economic Well-Being , 1987 .

[12]  W. P. Frisbie,et al.  Inequality and the Relative Size of Minority Populations: A Comparative Analysis , 1977, American Journal of Sociology.

[13]  P. West.  Urban region parks and black minorities: Subculture, marginality, and interracial relations in park use in the Detroit metropolitan area , 1989 .

[14]  R. Hutchison.  Ethnicity and Urban Recreation: Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics in Chicago's Public Parks , 1987 .

[15]  D. Dillman.  Mail and telephone surveys : the total design method , 1979 .

[16]  Harris Cooper,et al.  A Quantitative Review of Research Design Effects on Response Rates to Questionnaires , 1983 .

[17]  J. Yinger,et al.  Toward a theory of assimilation and dissimilation , 1981 .

[18]  P. Edwards.  Race, residence, and leisure style: some policy implications. , 1981 .

[19]  Gillian Stevens,et al.  The linguistic context of ethnic endogamy. , 1987 .

[20]  R. Washburne.  Black under‐participation in wildland recreation: Alternative explanations , 1978 .

[21]  E. Bogardus,et al.  A social distance scale. , 1933 .

[22]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research , 1977 .

[23]  Miriam B. Stamps,et al.  Race, class, and leisure activities of urban residents. , 1985 .

[24]  T. Heberlein,et al.  Factors affecting response rates to mailed questionnaires: A quantitative analysis of the published literature. , 1978 .

[25]  Claude S. Fischer,et al.  The Urban Experience , 1976 .

[26]  M. Floyd,et al.  Effects of acculturation and structural assimilation in resource-based recreation: the case of Mexican Americans. , 1993 .

[27]  M. Lopez.  Patterns of Interethnic Residential Segregation in the Urban Southwest. , 1981 .

[28]  S. Murdock,et al.  Residential Segregation and Ethnic Identification among Hispanics in Texas , 1988 .

[29]  R. Sáenz,et al.  Chicano Geographic Segregation: A Human Ecological Approach , 1990 .