Lindsey Newton
Louisiana State University
School of Renewable Natural Resources
Results
This survey was distributed by e-mail to students of the School of Renewable Natural Resources and by Groupme (Asian American Ambassadors, Minority Women's Movement, and Black LSU) and should be considered an open web style survey, therefore, reporting response rate and estimating non-response errors were not possible. Recent research suggests that for survey items where the magnitude in differences among respondents is large, results from open web style surveys are comparable with direct contact surveys. Please consider the magnitude of the response when interpreting these results.
Our 145 respondent's races were divided into 6 categories: 63.64% White, 22.38% Black, 6.99% Mixed Race, 2.8% Asian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian and Other had equal percentages of 2.10% with 4.29% of our respondents identifying as Hispanic.
In an effort to narrow down our possible influencing factors of participation in natural resources activities, we asked our respondents to pick from a list of general deterrents in order to indicate which of them had personally been impacted by these restrictions. We then separated the deterrents they were influenced by into white, and non-white categories. We found that non-white respondents were more likely to include lack of diversity in participants as a deterrent than white respondents. Both categories of respondents found the lack of time and money to be a large restriction to their participation.
Non-White Respondents
White Respondents
Respondents were asked to choose deterrents that barred them from participating in natural resource activities. The non-white respondents chose lack of free time as their biggest deterrent at 16.40%. The next most limiting factors were lack of money at 14.8%, and a lack of familiarity/understanding and a lack of companions who are willing to join you were represented equally at 12.70%. 6.74% of the non-white respondents found the lack of diversity in participants to be a deterrent.
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The white respondents also chose lack of free time as their biggest deterrent at 25.95%. The next most limiting factors were lack of money at 16.79%, and a lack of familiarity/understanding at 14.50%. None of the white respondents found the lack of diversity in participants to prevent them from participating.
Next, I evaluated the differences in the community the respondent was raised in, in relation to race
Non-White Respondents
White Respondents
The largest percentage of non-white respondents grew up in a suburban community represented by 45.8%, followed by urban community at 35% and rural community at 18%. The white respondents also had the largest percentage in a suburban community at 54.95%. However, the percentage of white respondents that grew up in an urban community was only 8.7%. The percentage of white respondents that grew up in a rural community was also significantly different than the non-white respondents with 36.26% of the total respondents being represented.
The p-value of 0.00043 indicates that the relationship between the community the respondent grew up in, and the race of the respondent, was statistically significant.
The p-value of 0.00127 indicates that the relationship between the chance of natural resource exposure, and the race of the respondent, was statistically significant.