ments, particularly Fascination.
Examination of a total perceived restorativeness score, by adding scores of the factors together, was conducted. The assumption, however, that each factor contributes equally to a restorative environment and thus to restoration of attentional capacity does remain a theoretical one. The total perceived restorativeness scale (i.e., all items), yielded strong internal consistency and was able to distinguish between the two environments, with the playground scoring higher on restoration potential than the school library, as predicted by ART (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989; Kaplan 1995) and prior research (Hartig et al. 1997a; Hartig et al. 1997b; Hartig et al. 1991; Herzog et al. 2002; Herzog et al. 2003; Korpela et al. 2002; Laumann et al. 2001). This finding was replicated for both boys and girls and both younger and older children.
Group DifferencesAlthough sample size did not allow for factor analysis to be conducted by sex nor age, factor scores by sex were compared as well as by age groups, as a broad indicator whether the PRCS-C could differentiate between groups of people’s reports of perceived restorativeness and to assess any developmental differences. Across the five factors for the two environments (i.e., ten comparisons), two differences were revealed between boys and girls. First, boys reported higher Being Away- Psychological scores for the playground, indicating that boys feel freer and less constrained than girls when on the playground. Girls’ lower scores on this measure may be influenced by the fact that they find the playground less interesting than the boys do, as reflected in the girls’ lower scores for playground Fascination. Second, boys also reported higher Being Away- Physical scores for the library than girls, indicating that boys perceive a greater difference between the library and classroom than girls. Results revealed no differences between the younger and older children on the five factors for the two environments. As the children were from the same developmental stage (Piaget 1980), it is not surprising these direct comparisons did not reveal differences between the younger and older children; it would suggest younger and older children in this limited age range (i.e., 8-11 years) experience these environments as more similar than boys and girls do.
When the total perceived restorativeness scores for boys and girls were compared for both environments, boys reported the playground as having higher restoration potential than girls. As the playground would contain more natural elements than the library, and prior research suggests a stronger association between girls and natural environments, than boys (Bagot and Gullone 2003; Faber Taylor et al. 2001, 2002), this could be considered an unexpected finding. Prior research, however, reports a relationship between boys and natural elements in play areas away from home (Faber Taylor et al. 2001), one example of which is school playgrounds. Boys and girls reported similar restoration potential for the library. When results for younger and older children were compared, both age groups reported similar levels of total perceived restorativeness for the two environments. That is, the playground was reported to have similar restoration potential for both younger and older groups. This was also reported with the library environment.
Overall, results indicate the PRCS-C is able to detect differences in the factor scores across groups of people, as would be expected when evaluating restoration potential of environments with different groups. Combining results for the comparisons across environments (i.e., comparing playground and library scores) and between groups (i.e., comparing results between boys and girls, and between younger and older children), indicates girls report the library to be more like their classroom and more interesting than the playground, and report the playground to have lower restoration potential than reported by boys. The only developmental difference was reported within environment comparisons with older chi