The effect of rural-urban residence on recreational hunting : a test of Hendee's model

Includes bibliographical references.Among the attempts to explain the widely observed association between rural residence and recreational hunting is the Hendee Model (1969) in which the influence of the rural-urban variable on the choice of recreational behavior is seen as mediated through the nature- exploitative character of rural-urban occupations and, consequently, through the development of utilitarian-expressive attitudes toward natural resources. As a test of Hendee's model, the present study sought to verify the model's component relationships between (i) rural-urban residence and hunting, (ii) rural-urban residence and exploitative-nonexploitative types of occupations, (iii) types of occupations and utilitarian-expressive attitudes toward natural resources, and (iv) attitudes toward natural resources and hunting activity. In addition, the study tested the causal structure of the model by examining the crucial relationship between (v) occupational type and participation in hunting, a relationship assumed to mediate the effect of rural residence on hunting and, in turn, assumed to be mediated through appropriate attitudes toward natural resources. The study is based on a secondary analysis of the NORC Social Science Survey data for Spring, 1977. Owing to the fact that hunting is largely a male activity, only data for the male respondents (n=693) were used in the analysis. The results show that while the component relationships proposed in the Hendee model are mostly plausible, the model's causal structure is not valid. In particular, the lack of association observed in this study between occupational types and participation in hunting imp!ies rw role for occupations to mediate the impact of rural-urban residence on hunting. The overall pattern of findings suggests that rural ethos and rural accessibility to hunting areas, rather than any nature-exploitative character of rural occupations and utilitarian attitudes, may be the mechanisms responsible for the association between rural residence and recreational hunting.M.A. (Master of Arts