Urban sunflower field landscape perception and visitors’ behavioral intentions: The serial roles of perceived restorativeness and emotional experience
Seasonal flower fields offer opportunities for visual enjoyment and nature contact, yet their perceived restorative qualities remain insufficiently understood. This study examined the structural associations among landscape visual appraisal, perceived nature contact, perceived restorativeness, emotional experience, and visitors’ behavioral intention in a seasonal sunflower field within an urban park. Based on 260 valid questionnaires from adults, structural equation modeling was used to test direct and sequential indirect effects and to compare perceptual differences across demographic and park-use groups. Perceived nature contact was significantly and positively associated with perceived restorativeness, whereas the association between landscape visual appraisal and perceived restorativeness was not statistically significant. Perceived restorativeness was significantly and positively associated with emotional experience, which was further positively associated with behavioral intention. Accordingly, hypothesis 1 (H1) was not supported in the primary model, whereas H2–H4 were supported. However, the landscape visual appraisal → perceived restorativeness association became significant after excluding perceived nature contact 3 (PN3), indicating sensitivity to the measurement specification of perceived nature contact. Bootstrap analysis showed a significant sequential indirect association between perceived nature contact and behavioral intention through perceived restorativeness and emotional experience. After Holm correction, only the difference in perceived nature contact by residential distance remained significant. The findings suggest a theoretically consistent pattern of associations among perceived nature contact, perceived restorativeness, emotional experience, and behavioral intention, and may inform the consideration of nature contact and recreational support alongside visual quality in urban flower-field design.
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