Determination of correlation among adventure behavior, psychological resilience and subjective wellbeing in outdoor recreation activities participants

The aim of the study is to compare adventure behavior seeking, psychological resilience and subjective well being levels of outdoor adventure recration participants in terms of various demographics and to determine the correlation between scales. In the light of this, correlational survey model of quantitave research methods. The population of the current study consists of individuals participating in air, land and/or water-based adventure activities whereas the study group consists of 396 participants in total (Meanage=31.47 ± 12.23), 179 of which are females (Meanage=33.56 ± 12.88) and 217 of which are males (Meanage=28.94 ± 10.89) who participate in outdoor adventure recreation activities such as paragliding, hanggliding, mountain biking, trekking, wind surf and kite surf. The participants were determined using convenient sampling method. As data collection tool, demographic information form prepared by the researcher, Adventure Behavior Seeking Scale (Güngörmüş, Yumuk & Gürbüz, 2022), Short Form Psychological Resilience Scale (Doğan, 2015) and Subjective Well Being Scale (Kırmızıer, 2018) were used. Data collection is carried out by reaching at the outdoor adventure recreation activity participants. Obtained data were transferred to IBM SPSS 26 and AMOS-26 package programs and organized to be analyzed. In the analysis of the data, first of all, skewness and kurtosis analysis were carried out in order to determine if the data show normal distribution. The Cronbach Alpha internal consistancy coefficients of the scales were calculated. The data obtained from ABSS, SFPRS and SWBS were analyzed using t test, ANOVA and Pearson Correlation tests. Also, Structural Equation Model (SEM) were used to test the causal correlations between observed and unobserved variables. To evaluate the fitness of the model, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were carried out. The findings indicated that there are statistically significant differences in ABSS in terms of gender, marital status, having difficulty in using leisure, chosen adventure recreation type and risk level of chosen adventure recreation activity; there are statistically significant differences in SFPRS in terms of financial status, weekly leisure duration and having difficulty in using leisure; and there are statistically significant differences in SWBS in terms of marital status, financial status, weekly leisure duration, chosen adventure recreation type and risk level of chosen adventure recreation activity. In addition, positive and low level of correlations were found between weather conditions subscale of ABSS and SFPRS and SWBS; positive and low level of correlations were found between ABSS and SFPRS and SWBS; and a positive and medium level of correlation was found between SFPRS and SWBS. According to Structural Equation Model results, weather conditions subscale of ABSS has a direct effect on SWBS; and the effect of weather conditions subscale of ABSS is partially affected by SFPRS. As a result, it is determined that the levels of ABSS, SFPRS and SWBS of the participants differ in terms of certain demographics. Additionally, adventure behavior affect subjective well being in a positive way, and psychological resilience; on the other hand, has a partial meditor role in this effect. In that context, it is suggested that outdoor recreation education, programs and applications related to adventure recreation that will increase the level of psychological resilience and subjective well being should be increased in number. Keywords: Outdoor recreation, Adventure recreation, Adventure behavior seeking, psychological resilience, subjective wellbeing.