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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1493422
This article is part of the Research Topic Place and Identity in a Changing World View all 4 articles

How Leisure Involvement Impacts Visitors' Perceived Health Benefits in Urban Forest Parks: Examining the Moderating Role of Place Attachment

Provisionally accepted
Wei Zhou Wei Zhou 1Shaozhen Fan Shaozhen Fan 1*Yuanjing Wu Yuanjing Wu 1*Guangyu Wang Guangyu Wang 2*Siren Lan Siren Lan 1*
  • 1 Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China
  • 2 University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Urban forest park leisure is a significant means for residents to achieve health and well-being, thus possessing high public health value. However, the relationship between visitors' leisure involvement and perceived health benefits has not been clarified. This study introduced restorative experiences and positive emotions as mediators and place attachment as a psychological moderator, innovatively constructing a stimulus-organism-response-moderator (SORM) integrated model. This moderated mediation model aimed to examine the mechanism through which visitors' leisure involvement influenced perceived health benefits. A field survey was conducted in Fuzhou National Forest Park in Fujian, China, resulting in the collection of 588 valid questionnaires. The results showed that visitors' leisure involvement positively impacted restorative experiences and positive emotions. Restorative experiences and positive emotions completely mediated the indirect relationship between visitors' leisure involvement and perceived health benefits. Place attachment enhanced the impact of restorative experiences on perceived health benefits, thereby positively moderating the mediation effect of restorative experiences. Place attachment also diminished the impact of positive emotions on perceived health benefits, thereby negatively moderating the mediation effect of positive emotions. Therefore, significant differences existed in the psychological processes involved in acquiring perceived health benefits among visitors with different levels of place attachment. Our findings might enrich the existing knowledge of place attachment and forest health benefits, providing valuable references for designing and optimizing urban forest parks.

    Keywords: SORM, place attachment, Restorative experiences, Positive emotions, moderated mediation model

    Received: 09 Sep 2024; Accepted: 30 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhou, Fan, Wu, Wang and Lan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Shaozhen Fan, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China
    Yuanjing Wu, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China
    Guangyu Wang, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T 1Z2, British Columbia, Canada
    Siren Lan, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.