Landscape Preferences and Leisure Constraints in Age-Friendly Community Parks

Abstract

Community parks are public spaces frequently used by older adults for outdoor physical activity. This makes age-friendly renewal increasingly important in urban planning. However, the mechanisms through which landscape characteristics influence serious leisure participation via leisure constraint negotiation remain insufficiently understood, particularly in mountainous cities. We surveyed 939 physically active older adults in 66 community parks in Chongqing, China and adopted a mixed-methods approach that reorganized the hierarchical/negotiation model by redefining the order of latent variables and incorporating landscape characteristics. Our results showed that older adults’ serious leisure in community parks in a mountainous city is primarily shaped by a constraint-driven negotiation process, with structural constraints positioned at the first level, before intrapersonal and interpersonal constraints. Older adults of advanced age, those with higher economic status, and those visiting mountainous community parks experienced greater negotiation difficulty. Community parks exhibit seven structural constraints, and differences in landscape preferences among older adult groups lead to nonlinear relationships between structural constraints and landscape characteristics. Accordingly, targeted strategies such as improving accessibility, enhancing facility diversity, and optimizing spatial configuration are recommended to support age-friendly renewal while preserving distinctive landscape characteristics. These findings provide practical implications for similar cities and support healthier, more inclusive urban environments.