The Personal Meaning of Participation: Enduring Involvement

This study suggests that the personal meaning of participation, previously referred to as commitment and involvement, may be appropriately represented by the concept of enduring involvement. The theoretical basis for the development of an instrument to measure enduring involvement in a recreation context is discussed and the results of the administration of the instrument in a beach camping setting in southeast Queensland are reported. These results demonstrate that enduring involvement is appropriately measured by three scales termed attraction, self-expression and centrality. In addition, the study demonstrates that, in the case of beach campers, the derived measure of centrality is moderately predictive of the choice of recreation setting.