"Messy transitions": Students' perspectives on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected every area of students' lives, especially their education. Limited research has explored students' experiences during the pandemic. This study documents how students across seven United States universities viewed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their educational experiences and how these students reacted to these impacts.

Greenspace and park use associated with less emotional distress among college students in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected many people's psychological health. Impacts may be particularly severe among socially vulnerable populations such as college students, a group predisposed to mental health problems. Outdoor recreation and visits to greenspaces such as parks offer promising pathways for addressing the mental health challenges associated with COVID-19.

Psychological impacts from COVID-19 among university students: Risk factors across seven states in the United States.

Background: University students are increasingly recognized as a vulnerable population, suffering from higher levels of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and disordered eating compared to the general population. Therefore, when the nature of their educational experience radically changes-such as sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic-the burden on the mental health of this vulnerable population is amplified. The objectives of this study are to 1) identify the array of psychological impacts COVID-19 has on students, 2) develop profiles to characterize students' anticipated levels of psychological impact during the pandemic, and 3) evaluate potential sociodemographic, lifestyle-related, and awareness of people infected with COVID-19 risk factors that could make students more likely to experience these impacts.

Improving understanding and management of the complex relationship between visitor motivations and spatial behaviors in parks and protected areas.

Increases in use and changes in the behavior of visitors to parks and protected areas (PPAs) worldwide are challenging the ability of managers to provide for a quality visitor experience while also maintaining the integrity of natural resources. Understanding visitor motivations and spatial behaviors are important for effective management of PPA resources and visitor experiences, as differences in motivations and spatial behaviors can influence the distribution of impacts to a recreation landscape. However, the relationships between motivations and behaviors are not well understood.

The influence of visitor use levels on visitor spatial behavior in off-trail areas of dispersed recreation use.

A variety of social and ecological factors influence the level and extent of ecological change that occurs in a park or protected area. Understanding these factors and how they are interrelated can help managers prevent undesirable ecological impacts, especially in areas without formal trails and visitor sites. This study examines the relationship between levels of visitor use and spatial patterns of visitor behavior at a variety of backcountry recreation destinations.

The effect of minimum impact education on visitor spatial behavior in parks and protected areas: An experimental investigation using GPS-based tracking.

The unmanaged impacts of recreation and tourism can often result in unacceptable changes in resource conditions and quality of the visitor experience. Minimum impact visitor education programs aim to reduce the impacts of recreation by altering visitor behaviors. Specifically, education seeks to reduce impacts resulting from lack of knowledge both about the consequences of one's actions and impact-minimizing best practices.

Enhancing the utility of visitor impact assessment in parks and protected areas: a combined social-ecological approach.

Understanding the ecological consequences of visitor use in parks and how visitors interact with resource conditions is essential for avoiding the impairment of park and protected area resources and visitor experiences. This study combined ecological measures of off-trail resource impacts with social science techniques to understand visitor judgments of ecological impacts and visitors' degree of exposure to impacts. Specifically, this paper reports on a novel integration of techniques that was tested in the Bear Lake Road Corridor of Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, USA in which resource change, as a result of visitor use off designated trails and sites, was assessed and combined with social science and visitor use data.

The effects of local ecological knowledge, minimum-impact knowledge, and prior experience on visitor perceptions of the ecological impacts of backcountry recreation.

An on-site visitor survey instrument was developed to examine visitor perceptions of resource impacts resulting from backcountry hiking activities. The survey was conducted in the Bear Lake Corridor of Rocky Mountain National Park, CO and examined visitor characteristics that may influence visitor perceptions of specific resource conditions. Findings indicate that visitors are more perceptive of recreation-related resource impacts that are the result of undesirable behavior and, while visitors do perceive resource impacts, visitors tend to be more affected by crowding.