County role in the provision of park and recreation opportunities : a study of Texas counties

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the organizational nature of Texas county park and recreation programs and conditions which have influenced county park and recreation policy. The research objectives were pursued through two complementary components, a survey of all Texas counties and an analysis of hypothesized relationships between county park and recreation expenditures and five independent variables describing socioeconomic conditions of the county area. The conceptual basis for the research, involving systems and institutional models for policy analysis, was evolved from the writings of political scientists, economists and park and recreation researchers. In the summer of 1978, a mail questionnaire was sent to the 254 Texas county judges. A second mailing, telephone solicitations and telephone interviews produced a 100 percent response to the survey. Survey data were tabulated and analyzed using descriptive statistics to characterize county park and recreation programs in terms of organization and administration, personnel and clientele, financing and budgeting and issues and concerns. Concomitant review of the constitutional and legislative basis of Texas counties supported the analyses. The second component of the study developed and tested hypotheses concerning the influence of measurable socioeconomic conditions and county park and recreation expenditures. Expenditures were deemed to be a surrogate for county policy in park and recreation. A priori selection of independent variables was predicated on previous research and data availability in the years of reported expenditures, i.e., 1962, 1967 and 1972. Independent variables included personal income, county assessed valuation, population density, percent urban population and population density per dwelling unit. Statistical methodology employed Pearson's product-moment correlations and multiple regression analyses. T -tests and coefficients of determination were utilized to determine the presence of significance (@P<.01) and the appropriateness of the regression model, respectively...