STANDARDIZED QUESTIONNAIRES 211

0 The best predictors for distinguishing those preferring to stay and those
wanting to leave are, firstly, the quality aspect of place dependence, secondly the
sense of community, and thirdly, the comparative quality aspect of place depend-
ence (p. 281).

. for the adolescents from these rural communities, the overall quality of
resources for living in the community, and their sense of belonging to the commu-
nity have greater potential to protect identity and willingness to stay than indica—
tors of attachment that is emotional bonding the behavioral commitment and
activity.

0 Focus group participants recruited to interpret and analyze the data with the
investigators felt that those who described the quality of community resources as
interesting and diverse were mostly men referring to the natural environment and
opportunities to fish, hunt, ride, and walk. “Those less satisfied with the commu-
nity tended to be adolescent girls and female adults” (p. 283).

0 The investigators point out that a high degree of place identity among resi-
dents 15 not necessarily positive from a policy point of view.

0 From our focus group data the negative consequences of strong community
identity are also evident. Several middle-aged residents made the comment that they
wished they could leave to enjoy retirement by the sea and younger adult residents
preferred to sell the farm and move to more promising jobs elsewhere, but because
of elderly family and their own roots, both groups felt they had to stay (p. 285).

Altogether, this study and the one that follows demonstrate how deeply
an environment-behavior phenomenon can be understood employing a ques-
tionnaire.

Kuo and colleagues carried out two questionnaire-based studies that link
green environments to health outcomes (Kuo and Sullivan, 2001; Kuo and
Faber Taylor, 2004). Each study delivered the questionnaires in ways that were
suited to the particular needs and abilities of their subjects.

Kuo and Sullivan gathered data from a sample of African-American fam-
ilies, mostly women, to determine the relationship between green plantings
around public housing buildings, ability to focus, and spousal abuse at
Chicago’s infamous inner-city Robert Taylor Homes complex. To assure the
highest “return rate” the team recruited a group of poor African-American
women to administer the questionnaires verbally and in person to a carefully
selected sample of the project’s residents. After extensive training, the “inter—
viewers” knocked on doors of a random sample of residents living on floors 2,
3, and 4—those who would be closest to the trees around the building. The rate
of completion of the questionnaire related to the selected sample was 92 per-
cent. Each respondent received $10 when they answered all the questions.

Because the instrument was administered in person, it could include a
standardized neurocognitive interactive memory/stress question and scale. In
the Digit Span Backwards test as administered by Cimprich (1993), the admin-
istrator reads aloud a series of numbers—“6, 8, 4, 9”—and the respondent
repeats them backwards. The length of the longest string correctly repeated
after two attempts is considered a measure of capacity for direct attention. Kuo
and colleagues found that residents living in buildings with more adjacent green
planting exhibited less aggression toward their spouses.