NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Dehcho Region, North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, national parks, public health, protected area, community-based research

Objective(s): To fill a major knowledge gap around how park quality and proximity affects experiences in, perceptions of, and uses of, parks and recreational facilities in Canada. In turn, the survey will be used to understand how these park attitudes, perceptions and behaviours relate to health perceptions and wellbeing outcomes. Our guiding research question is: what are the perceived health and well-being benefits Canadian's associate with visiting parks, protected areas, and recreational facilities?

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5456. The objective of the ParkSeek household survey is to fill a major knowledge gap around how park quality and proximity affects experiences in, perceptions of, and uses of, parks and recreational facilities in Canada. In turn, the survey will be used to understand how these park attitudes, perceptions and behaviours relate to health perceptions and wellbeing outcomes. The guiding research question is: what are the perceived health and well-being benefits Canadian's associate with visiting parks, protected areas, and recreational facilities? Recruitment will occur via mail (Paper) and social media (Online). Potential participants will either receive the survey at random via mail, or click on the link to the survey on social media promotions posted by NWT research partners. Participants receiving a paper-based copy of the survey by mail are provided the option to complete the survey online. Participants receive the survey via our mailing supplier (KeyContact) with the researchers having no knowledge of addresses. Researchers provide KeyContact with a list of forward sortation areas to send the Protected Areas version of the survey to all households in that area. KeyContact then randomly distributes ~2500 survey packages within these Forward Sortation Areas via Canada Post's SmartMail Marketing Partner program. KeyContact and the researchers have no knowledge of who chooses to respond to the survey. Participants will undertake the survey via Qualtrics or on paper. All questions are optional to answer in the survey. Mail-based participants will receive a copy of the Protected Areas version of the survey. The Letter of Information will include a link to the appropriate version of the survey that matches their paper-based version of the survey. Participants will first be presented with the Letter of Information to review. Mail-based respondents will be instructed to return their completed survey by Business Reply Mail with a pre-paid postage envelope to The University of Western Ontario, provided in the survey package. They will be asked to keep their Letter of Information with the unique identification code, should they wish to obtain a copy of their responses or withdraw from the study prior to submission of manuscripts to publishers. Submission of a completed survey by mail is considered implied consent to participate in the study. Participants receiving a mail-based package are provided instructions on how to complete the survey online, which if they choose to do so, would experience the procedure outlined in the next step. Online participants will be presented with the Letter of Information, and a checkbox to imply their consent to participate in the study. If affirmative they will then be presented with a unique confirmation number, with instructions to save it, and then directed further to complete the survey. Online participants will press a button to submit their survey. Upon submission of the survey, online participants will be presented with the same unique confirmation number, with instructions to save it, for use should the participant wish to obtain a copy of their responses or withdraw from the study prior to submission of manuscripts to publishers. All participants are then directed to fill out a separate survey in Qualtrics with only their email address to enter into the draw. Paper-based survey respondents will receive this link printed on the Letter of Information included in their mailing package. Aggregate survey results will be communicated via the publication of a final report related to responses within the Northwest Territories. These survey responses will be contextualized within other geospatial and policy information collected as part of the broader ParkSeek research project (see parkseek.ca for an overview). In addition, the research team may provide a digital webinar, in-person presentations, or other summary communication products identified by NWT research partners as having value to communities. Survey responses from NWT will be included in broader ParkSeek project-related peer-reviewed publications. The above report, and any peer-reviewed publications that includes NWT survey responses will be deposited with the Aurora Research Institute. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from March 1, 2023 to March 31, 2023.