Sociodemographic Determinants of Poles’ Attitudes towards the Forest during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Anna Koprowicz, Robert Korzeniewicz, Wojciech Pusz and Marlena Baranowska
Additional contact information
Anna Koprowicz: Institute of Pedagogy, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, 76-200 Słupsk, Poland
Robert Korzeniewicz: Department of Silviculture, Poznan University of Life Sciences, 60-637 Poznań, Poland
Wojciech Pusz: Department of Plant Protection, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 50-375 Wrocław, Poland
Marlena Baranowska: Department of Silviculture, Poznan University of Life Sciences, 60-637 Poznań, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Attitudes towards forest ecosystems have been changing together with human needs, which is amplified with society’s increasing need to spend recreation time in the forest. The phenomenon has been particularly visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to determine the attitude of Poles to forests during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was based on (1) a sociodemographic background questionnaire that consisted of questions about the independent variables and (2) the LAS scale—an independently prepared tool for measuring attitudes towards the forest. In the survey, 1025 people participated (673 women). The age of the subjects was between 19 and 68. The attitude towards the forest was analysed in three dimensions: Benefits, Involvement, and Fears. The Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance by ranks were used for statistical analysis. Women and people with primary education expressed the most fears connected with going to the forest. Men and people living in the countryside and in small towns, as well as respondents who were professionally active and performing work connected with forests were the most involved in exploring the forest and working for its benefit. Concerning the forest, concerned women, people from the highest age group, respondents with university education, and white-collar workers notice the most benefits from recreational activities in the forest.

Keywords: coronavirus; forest therapy; LAS scale; COVID-19; society; forest function; urban and suburban forests (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1537/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1537/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:3:p:1537-:d:737897

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().