Geoffrey Godbey

Pennsylvania State University | Penn State · Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management

We examined the relationship between self-rated health and use of parks and recreation program participation by using logistic regression to analyze data from representative national surveys conducted in 1991 and 2015. Neither park use nor program participation were significantly related to self-rated health in 1991; however, both were significantl...

The emergence of public recreation and parks as a function of government represented an organized movement against the evils of industrialization. Today, workers in public recreation increasingly show characteristics of professionalization, including the possession of specialized higher education degrees, voluntary systems of certifying employees,...

It is widely believed that the pace of life has sped up and, as rushing has increased, North American society has become more stressed. The present study utilized stress related data collected as part of the National Population Health Interview Surveys in 1985, 1990, 1993 and 1995, to examine changes in the levels of perceived stress over this peri...

Although partnerships between park and recreation agencies and health agencies are prevalent, little research has examined partnership characteristics and effectiveness among communities of different sizes. The objective of this study was to determine whether park and recreation leaders' perceptions of partnership characteristics, effectiveness, an...

The research literature on outdoor recreation as it relates to human health is vast and growing. To help policymakers take new and emerging findings into account when designing recreation and park services and initiatives for the 21st century, this paper summarizes the salient issues and identifies research gaps. It considers how being outside in n...

Lack of social support and low self-efficacy are important barriers to regular exercise and physical activity. However, it is unclear whether these resources contribute significantly to CDC recommended physical activity levels and which of these factors (and their associated sub-domains) are more robust in relating to leisure time physical activity...

Promoting physical activity among middle age and older adults to decrease the incidence of disease and premature death and to combat the health care costs associated with a sedentary lifestyle is more important now than ever. There is now a better understanding of what "successful aging" means and of what aspects of life have the greatest potential...

Health scholars purport that park proximity and social support promotes physical activity and health. However, few studies examine the combined contributions of these constructs in shaping physical activity and health. In this study, the contributions of environmental and social characteristics in shaping park use, physical activity, and health are...

The purpose of parks and recreation as well as public health is to seek the highest possible quality of life for individuals and communities. Unfortunately, little discourse has occurred between the parks and recreation and public health professions. This missed opportunity has resulted in an incomplete understanding of the spectrum of issues share...

Recent nation-wide data on self-reported leisure-time physical inactivity reveals that about one third of the American population age 50 and over is sedentary. Several national organizations are promoting leisure-time physical activity among older adults as a strategy for this population to adapt to age-related declines in mental and physical funct...

Social Forces 84.4 (2006) 2368-2369 In The Time Divide, Jacobs and Gerson argue that a time crunch exists in America that cannot be overcome by individual efforts but rather requires changes in social policy. According to the authors: The issues of this book, to a great extent, reflect not only changes in women's roles and expectations but also the...

This paper examined how gender and ethnicity are related to preferences for various park characteristics, visitation to urban parks and open spaces, and perception of park benefits as reported by participants in a mail survey of residents in two metropolitan areas in the eastern United States. In total, 1570 questionnaires were completed, but 65 ca...

Although the fields of leisure studies and recreation and parks were founded on addressing health and wellness needs of people, only recently have these needs been addressed by major, systematic research efforts. This paper examines the origins of leisure studies and the study of recreation behavior and park use and their potential contribution to...

Research on service management has been focused on a few strategies for retaining customer loyalty: improving service quality so that customers do not experience failure and recovering from failure, when it does occur. A third strategy is to protect against the ill effects of service failure by preemptive action. This is explored, in the research r...

Current demographic trends indicate population growth for racial and ethnic minority groups in the US is increasing considerably faster than the rate for the nation's population as a whole. Nation-wide, racial and ethnic minority groups constitute important and growing user segments of urban parks and forests. Development and delivery of effective...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Demographic change is redefining the demand for recreation and leisure within North America (Shelhas, 2002; Struglia & Winter, 2002). One such change is a result of rapid Asian American and Hispanic American population growth. A better under-standing of the outdoor recreation attitudes and behaviors of those populations and a cle...

Leisure is an important context in which human development occurs. Changes in leisure behavior patterns may indicate changing developmental needs or reflect contextual changes that impact leisure behavior. The transition from adolescence to young adulthood provides an excellent opportunity for the study of the stability of leisure behavior as indiv...

Research shows that parks and recreation services provide people with opportunities that have substantial positive health effects, resulting in massive public-health cost savings. In a rapidly changing world, the ability to adapt and collaborate is critical for leisure services professionals. Recreation and parks must be reconceptualized to remain...

This study examined experts' perceptions of future tourism growth in three Pennsylvania tourist regions by applying an exploratory research design and a qualitative data analysis. The findings included typologies of growth areas, of experts' attitudes toward growth, and of the experts themselves. This study looks at experts' opinions of tourism gro...

Using data from a yearlong qualitative investigation, this paper investigated the nature of recreation specialization in the social world of contract bridge. Specialization was examined in terms of players' participation within the context of two distinct subworlds: social bridge and serious bridge. Four types of players were identified: tournament...

Americans' use and perception of time will influence the future of the hospitality industry. During the last few decades, it appears that hours of work have declined, measured either as hours of work for those in the labor force or as a percentage of all the hours of an individual's life. Public perception, however, is that hours of work are increa...

Using large‐scale and nationally representative surveys of the American public conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, the authors examined recent differences in the sport and fitness activities of men and women aged 18 or older. It was found that participation in sport and fitness activity declined by 12% between 1985 and 1990. Con...

This study examined the possible existence of three distinct, hierarchically ordered categories of constraints on leisure originally proposed by Crawford and Godbey (1987) and elaborated on by Crawford, Jackson, and Godbey (1991). A new instrument was developed to measure perceptions of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints on le...

Virtually all past leisure constraints research has been based on a conception of constraints as insurmountable obstacles to leisure participation. Thus, it has typically been assumed that if an individual encounters a constraint, the outcome will be nonparticipation. This article elaborates an alternative view of constraints that has recently begu...

Missing from the study of leisure behavior is a research tradition expressly devoted to the study of adult play groups. This article presents a social world perspective for analyzing such groups and frames the analysis of play groups in terms of both individual interactants and the broader social world in which the groups are a part. The social wor...

Tourism is examined as a phenomenon that can be best understood as a form of play. Tourism and resulting economic behavior are examined as stimulus-seeking play that contains distinct stages of exploration, assimilation, and creativity or withdrawal. To exemplify such ideas, the impact of repetition of a given tourist experience on economic spendin...

Recreation and leisure studies in North America offers a number of intriguing parallels with tourism. Both have diverse origins; are inherently interdisciplinary; and combine traditional atheoretical, descriptive, and applied research with innovative scholarship that is devoted to developing and testing concepts and theories. It is noted that both...

For public recreation, park, and leisure services to prosper in the financially troubled 1990s, they will have to be recognized as a primary health provider. By today's standards, health, recreation, and leisure are practically synonymous. The article rethinks the concepts of health, illness, parks, and recreation. (SM)

The purpose of this article is to modify a conceptualization of leisure constraints offered by Crawford and Godbey (1987). It is suggested that Crawford and Godbey's three discrete models of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints should be recast as a single integrated model in which leisure participants are viewed as having negot...

While research indicates that leisure is an important source of both family cohesion and conflict, comparatively little attention has been given to the development of conceptual models which define the nature and operation of leisure barriers. Traditionally, barriers have been assumed to constitute intervening variables in the leisure preference‐pa...

This article reports the results of a study of second home owners in a Pennsylvania recreation home development, and concludes that second home owners continually evaluate the utility of owning the second home as they move through life stages or the family life cycle.

A survey examined fear of crime among an elderly population as it related to leisure behavior and the use of public recreation facilities. Response to the survey showed that, although the elderly population was surprisingly mobile, reasons preventing respondents from using parks and senior centers included: lack of interest, fear of crime, health,...

McKechnie's Leisure Activities Blank along with demographic questions were utilized in examining past and present participation in leisure activities of 160 retirement village dwellers in Sacramento, California. In analyzing the data, measures of constriction (dropping of activities), expansion (adding of activities), and change (cumulative differe...

This text introduces to the general reader the principal types of organizations providing recreation, park, and leisure services, and the roles that these organizations play in modern society. In addition, issues affecting the decision-making processes of such agencies are examined. The material is divided into two broad sections. Section I, Functi...

This study attempts to determine the full-time, year-round employee characteristics of those employed in public, tax-supported, recreation, park, and combined recreation and park departments at the municipal, county, and special district level as well as in the state park systems. (JD)

Thesis (M.S.) -- Pennsylvania State University. Bibliography: leaves 112-116. Microopaque.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Pennsylvania State University, 1972. Microfilm (positive). Microform.

Proefschrift University Park, Pennsylvania. Lit.opg.