Effects of physical and psychological factors on users’ attitudes, use patterns, and perceived benefits toward urban parks

Abstract

This paper studied perceived physical and psychological factors that influence relations between people and urban parks. Current literature showed that these factors influence attitudes, behavior, and perceived benefits toward urban parks. While most research focused on either physical factors or psychological determinants, much less grouping them and simultaneously examining their effects on people-environment relations. To study the issue, we collected data by interviewing five hundred park visitors from ten urban parks in Hong Kong. Results showed that both categories of influence are significantly associated with relations between people and urban parks; facilities and management in physical dimension and perceived accessibility in psychological factors are variables most strongly associated with these relations. Besides, psychological factors added explanatory power of regression models. Nevertheless, the inclusion of psychological factors crowded out physical factors as significant variables, and the mediation test suggested that psychological factors play a potential mediating role in the associations between physical factors and the people-environment relations. The findings highlighted the salient factors of urban parks and the effects on health-related benefits.