Exploring and measuring the benefits of hunting

The purpose of this study was to develop a survey instrument to measure the psychological benefits related to hunting. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs was used as a theoretical framework which includes five levels: Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, Self-Esteem and Self-Actualization. Simple yes/no questions were developed to measure physiological and safety levels while existing scales were used to measure love/belonging and self-esteem. However, it was necessary to develop a scale to measure self-actualization. A pilot study was conducted to develop a scale to measure self-actualization. The 44-question survey was mailed to South Carolina (SC) resident hunting license holders (n = 300; 28% response rate). We developed a reliable scale to measure Awe experiences, representing self-actualization (S-B chi 2 = 409.31; CFI = 0.956; RMSEA = 0.05). A second survey was conducted to develop the full model measuring Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs that incorporated the scale for measuring self-actualization along with measures for the four remaining levels. The survey was administered by mail to SC resident hunting license holders (n = 995; 20% response rate) and online to participants of the Quality Deer Management Association's Deer Steward program (n = 871; 46.5% response rate). The survey contained 51 measures of hunter needs and 10 sociodemographic questions. A valid and reliable instrument was developed, the Benefits of Hunting Assessment Scale (BoHAS), to gauge benefits received through hunting (S-B chi 2 = 1998.1; CFI = 0.953; RMSEA = 0.057; Rho = 0.975; alpha = 0.965). The final model included one higher order factor, BoHAS, 3 primary sub-factors (Love/Belonging, Self-Esteem and Self-Actualization, as measured by Awe) and 6 sub-factors of Awe. There were no difference in the BoHAS scores by gender (B = 0.01732; beta = 0.01268; Z = 0.08814; p = 0.2). This finding implies that women and men receive the same benefits through hunting.