TY - JOUR
T1 - “To me, it's just natural to be in the garden”
T2 - A multi-site investigation of new community gardener motivation using Self-Determination Theory
AU - Sachs, Ashby
AU - Tharrey, Marion
AU - Darmon, Nicole
AU - Alaimo, Katherine
AU - Boshara, Arianna
AU - Beavers, Alyssa
AU - Litt, Jill
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by University of Colorado Environmental Studies Program Graduate Research and Travel Grants, and the Beverly Sears Graduate Student Research Grant. The CAPS RCT in Denver is funded by the American Cancer Society , Research Scholars Grant ( 130091-RSG-16-169-01-CPPB ). The JArDinS study in Montpellier is co-funded by INRAE and the Surfood-Foodscape project publicly funded through ANR (the French National Research Agency) under the “Investissements d'avenir” programme, reference ANR-10-LABX-001-01 Labex Agro and coordinated by the Agropolis Foundation. Katherine Alaimo was supported in part by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Michigan AgBio Research Hatch projects MICL02410 and MICL02711 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - We compare interviews with 30 new community gardeners in Denver, Colorado and Montpellier, France, using Self-determination theory, a general theory of motivation, to determine how new community gardeners may or may not have felt motivated based on psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Relatedness as a motivational feature carried through the interview data at both sites. Participants’ success or failure to relate to other gardeners was a major influence for how autonomous and competent as a community gardener they expressed feeling. As the evidence grows that community gardening is beneficial for health and wellbeing, our findings are critical to understanding how community gardening could serve as a health promotion strategy. With the presence of ongoing, friendly support from others, more individuals may adhere to this socially connective, nature-based practice.
AB - We compare interviews with 30 new community gardeners in Denver, Colorado and Montpellier, France, using Self-determination theory, a general theory of motivation, to determine how new community gardeners may or may not have felt motivated based on psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Relatedness as a motivational feature carried through the interview data at both sites. Participants’ success or failure to relate to other gardeners was a major influence for how autonomous and competent as a community gardener they expressed feeling. As the evidence grows that community gardening is beneficial for health and wellbeing, our findings are critical to understanding how community gardening could serve as a health promotion strategy. With the presence of ongoing, friendly support from others, more individuals may adhere to this socially connective, nature-based practice.
KW - Community gardening
KW - Motivation
KW - Nature-based solutions
KW - Self-determination theory
KW - Social connectedness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132239114&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.wss.2022.100088
DO - 10.1016/j.wss.2022.100088
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132239114
SN - 2666-5581
VL - 3
JO - Wellbeing, Space and Society
JF - Wellbeing, Space and Society
M1 - 100088
ER -