ndent samples (age group) t-tests were conducted (Bonferroni Adjusted significance alpha .05/2 = .025 for each) revealed boys scored the playground significantly higher on total perceived restorativeness restorative than girls [t(223)=3.26, p=.001]. No significant differences were reported by age group.
DiscussionOverall, the goals of the current study were met. The development of a measure suitable for children, comprising the proposed factors of restorative environments and able to differentiate between environments and groups was accomplished– the PRCS-C. The specific items and administration order are included in the first two columns of Table 1.
Playground DataAs predicted, five factors could be extracted from the data, reflecting a priori scales reported by Laumann et al. (2001). Items for each factor are presented in Table 1. Factors included: Being Away- Physical (“… I feel as though I am in different surroundings …”), Being Away- Psychological (“… I am away from things I must do”), Fascination (“There are many things … that I find fascinating”), Compatibility (“The things I want to do can be done …”), and Extent (“I can do different things in different areas …”). This 15-item five-factor structure was found with the playground data.
Library DataA very similar although not identical factor structure was also yielded with the library data. Of eight items removed from playground data, six were also removed from the library data indicating similar underlying structures in the data. The two items retained by the library data, but excluded from the playground data were a Fascination item and a Compatibility item. Overall, differences lay in the Compatibility and Extent items. Compatibility items were split into two factors and no Extent items remained within the library data.
PRCS-CIn short, both sets of data yielded five factors with 15 items with three factors consistent: Being Away– Physical, Being Away– Psychological and Fascination. Compatibility was similar in both data sets, albeit split in the library data, and Extent was not replicated in the library data. Extent may have been particularly difficult to capture with the library environment due to its typically small size and the similarities in use to the classroom.
As the factor analysis results using the playground data yielded both theoretically and statistically appropriate outcomes, these items were used to comprise the restorative components for both environments for further analysis. For both the playground and library data, internal consistency for the factors was considered acceptable for four of the five factors. Although alpha values of around .7 are considered optimal, lower values are expected and acceptable with scales containing few items (Anastasi and Urbina 1997). Results for the Extent factor, however, are particularly low. This is consistent with prior research, as the two Extent items that were retained were adapted from the PRS developed by Hartig et al. (1997b) who also reported similar issues (i.e., number of items, internal consistency) with the Extent factor. While additional Extent items were included in the initial pool of items, they did not perform well.
All the factors were positively associated. Consistent with prior research (Laumann et al. 2001), the factors correlated significantly across both environments except for Being Away- Physical and Fascination for the playground, the more natural environment. This result is, however, somewhat inconsistent with Laumann et al.’s finding, which occurred within the less natural (i.e., city) environment.
Environment DifferencesWhen comparing the two environments, the more natural environment of the playground yielded higher scores than the library across all factors as expected (Hartig et al. 1997a; Laumann et al. 2001), excluding Fascination, which scored lower. These relationships were all significant, indicating the PRCS-C was distinguishing between the two school environments on the basis of each of the five factors. The unexpected finding of Fascination scoring lower for the playgrou