Construction and Validation of the National Survey on Recreation and the Environment's Lifestyles Scale

IntroductionWherever there is a need to design more effective outreach, communication, education, marketing, advertising or sales strategies, lifestyle information can be helpful. Lifestyle scales, if well designed and executed, identify activities that reflect activities of both necessity and activities of leisure (Horley, 1992; Peter & Olson, 1994; Veal, 1993; Vyncke, 2002). Because they capture both necessities and "niceties," lifestyle scales used in designing contact or delivery strategies are more likely to be successful (Vyncke). This is especially true when the information provided, about the services and programs being offered, is targeted to match people's routine activities, interests, and needs (Gobster, 2002). Within the recreation and leisure field, people's activities and interests started to be examined in earnest in the late 1970's under the mantle of "specialization" (Bryan, 2000). Since that time research into specialization (and lifestyles) has broadened from looking at differences within a specific group (e.g., bird-watchers, immigrants, married couples, golfers) (Bryan; Kalmijn & Bernasco, 2001; Petrick, Backman, Bixler, & Norman, 2001; Scott & Thigpen, 2003; Stodolska, 2000) to differences between specific groups (e.g., African-American versus Latino urban park users, skiers versus snowboarders, blind versus low vision or sighted youths) (Gobster, 2002; Vaske, Carothers, Donnelly, & Baird, 2000; Wolffe & Sacks, 1997).Today, as recreation and leisure service providers become increasingly more competitive over existing and potential customers, research that helps to identify different lifestyles within and between specific groups continues to grow in its complexity and scope (McChesney, 1997). For instance, where earlier research mostly focused on differentiating groups by their recreational activities, setting preferences and demographic information, today's research now includes other more salient lifestyle information such as people's interests, attitudes, and opinions (Moore & Driver, 2005; Petrick, 2002). Similarly, earlier research that also looked at larger general populations often focused on people's recreational activities, their preferences, and standard Census demographic characteristics (Cordell, Bet/, Green, Mou, Leeworthy, Wiley, et al., 2004; Cushman, Veal & Zuzanek, 2005; Morgan & Levy, 2002; Pennington-Gray, Fridgen & Stynes, 2003). Although this type of research was often significant and helpful (Cordell, Betz., Bowker, English, Johnson, Mou, et al., 1999), the usefulness of this information by recreational professionals in predicting people's choices and needs was somewhat limited as it did not include other salient "lifestyle" factors (Moore & Driver, 2005; Murdock, Backman, Hoque, & Ellis, 1991). However, as some recent studies have shown, by adding more diverse lifestyle information, recreational professionals are able to better tailor their programs to the needs, wants and demands of their customers (Gilbert & Warren, 1995; Vyncke, 2002).Knowing more about people's lifestyles, in addition to describing them across an array of socio-demographic factors, increases the capability of recreation and leisure professionals to focus their recreation, park, education, and related leisure programs to an increasingly diverse American public. This information also benefits private product manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and service deliverers by better describing their customers and by identifying better pathways for advertising (Francese, 1996; Gilbert & Warren, 1995; Morgan & Levy, 2002: Rice, 1988).Subsequently, the aim of this study was to add to the present body of knowledge by constructing and validating a lifestyle scale that would help recreation and leisure professionals better design, inform, and deliver their programs and services to their customers. The term lifestyle has been defined as "the distinctive behavioral expression of a characteristic pattern of values and beliefs" (Horley, p. …