How does recreation involvement in urban parks promote restorative effects?

Urban parks are often popular places for recreation and restorative experiences. While recreation involvement has been linked to human health, few studies have examined the role of recreation involvement in shaping users’ restorative experiences. To address this research gap, we conducted two empirical studies to test the hypothesis that recreation involvement may be an important pathway through which park environments affect individual restorative effects. Study 1 used a repeated-measures approach to investigate how recreation involvement moderates the effects of different urban park landscape types on physiological, emotional, and subjective recovery experiences. Study 2 collected survey data from urban park users to examine the mediating role of recreation involvement in the relationship between landscape elements and restorative effects. The results indicate that recreation involvement moderates the relationship between landscape types and subjective recovery. A high level of recreation involvement enhances personal subjective recovery in waterfront and open lawn spaces. Moreover, recreation involvement also partially mediates the effect of plants on subjective recovery, while fully mediating the effects of water and facilities on subjective recovery. Demographic and park visit characteristics moderated these relationships. Our study highlights the significant role of recreation involvement in enhancing the restorative effects of urban park environments. Future urban park design should prioritize the interaction between plants, water, facilities and recreation experiences, while focusing on the quality of these landscape features in rationality, naturalness and comfort, especially in open lawns and waterfront areas. This helps to improve the subjective recovery experience and overall well-being. • The waterfront, paved square, open lawn and woodland space are restorative. • Recreation involvement enhances subjective recovery in waterfront and open lawn. • Recreation involvement mediated the landscape elements on subjective recovery. • Well-designed plants, water, and facilities enhance subjective recovery. • Age and education level can predict recreation involvement and subjective recovery.