Relationships between Newfoundland and Labrador residents' environmental/wildlife attitudes, demographic characteristics and experience in wildlife related outdoor activities

Hill, Bonny Lynn (1984) Relationships between Newfoundland and Labrador residents' environmental/wildlife attitudes, demographic characteristics and experience in wildlife related outdoor activities. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

A survey was conducted to determine the attitudes of the Newfoundland and Labrador public toward wildlife and the environment. It was hypothesized that: 1) wildlife/environmental attitudes of participants in nonconsumptive activities would differ significantly from those people who participate in consumptive activities and 2) differences in attitudes would be related to knowledge of wildlife and differing life experiences as determined by the demographic characteristics of age, gender, education and place of residence. -- A total of 500 personal interviews were conducted - 208 in Phase One on the Avalon Peninsula and 292 in Phase Two in the remainder of the province. Proportional, stratified, multi-stage sampling was used to select towns and respondents. The average interview length was 73 minutes and the response rate was 85.2 percent. -- Factor analysis was used to examine the categories of attitudes toward wildlife and the environment held by the public of Newfoundland and Labrador. Nine attitude categories were described: Utilitarian, Urbanistic, Negativistic, Scientistic, Environmental Protectionistic, Ecologistic, Economistic, Developmental and Altruistic. Participants in nonconsumptive activities were likely to be urban residents, better educated, knowledgeable about wildlife, hold highly Economistic and Scientistic attitudes and low Urbanistic and Negativistic attitudes. Participants in consumptive activities were likely to be knowledgeable about wildlife, male, have a lower level of education, hold highly Utilitiaran and Economistic and low Urbanistic attitudes. Over half of the respondents (56%) participated in both consumptive and nonconsumptive activities while 11.6% participated only in consumptive activities and 22.4% participated only in nonconsumptive activities.

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