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Investigating The Influence Of Interpretation On Children's National Park Stewardship Behaviors Using The Elaboration Likelihood Model, Susan Vezeau

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Interpretation efforts are commonly used in park and protected area management to communicate information about a place to visitors, and in some cases, are also intended to persuade visitors to engage in stewardship behaviors. The National Park Service (NPS) Junior Rangers (JR) programs are intended to develop a sense of stewardship within participating children; however, few studies have explored the effectiveness of these programs. In addition, despite considerable research investigating interpretation and its influence, further exploration of the factors that influence stewardship behaviors in participants of interpretation are needed. The purpose of this Dissertation research was to: 1) develop scales …