Activity In African American Women Research Articles

Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women's Activism in the Beauty Industry (review)

Reviewed by: Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women's Activism in the Beauty Industry Julia Kirk Blackwelder Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women's Activism in the Beauty Industry. By Tiffany M. Gill. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 2010 In Beauty Shop Politics Tiffany M. Gill argues concisely and convincingly that the beauty industry facilitated the political activism of "beauty culturists" as they gained economic autonomy through hairdressing and product sales within black communities. The book, which covers the entire span of the twentieth century, complements a sizable body of historical literature on the rise of the beauty industry and the unique place of African American women in that industry. Gill explores the paradox and the dilemma that de facto and legalized segregation, North and South, provided an opportunity for the flowering of African American businesses, among which beauty proved major in the millions of dollars it generated and the numbers of women for whom it provided a livelihood. She also demonstrates that, although segregation provided a niche for the African American industry, the successes of the civil rights movement did not close African American beauticians out of the trade. White entrepreneurs successfully entered into the manufacture of African American beauty products, but intra-racial preferences and persistent discrimination kept white beauticians out of black beauty shops and African American patrons loyal to practitioners of their own race. Gill documents beauticians' participation and leadership in protest and rights advocacy from the Garvey movement through health improvement campaigns at the turn of the twenty-first century. Gill is at her strongest in showing throughout that beauticians engaged in gender politics alongside racial politics as women confronted gender role expectations within the black community as they grappled simultaneously with the challenges of minority life in America. She shows that the beauty shop both catered to women's hair styling demands and provided a haven from African American women=s battles with the world outside the salon. She brings to light the significant political contributions of lesser-known beautician activists like Adina Stewart and Mamie Garvin Fields. Organizations of beauticians stressed the importance of political rights and mobilized beauticians to work for civil rights and for individual electoral candidates. The last two chapters of the book, which follow beauticians from the civil rights movement through the challenges of the Hurricane Katrina calamity and of the Obama election campaign, bring the most new information to light. Sources for the study of the African American beauty trade are vast in number, but they are widely dispersed and often hidden inside collections on other topics. Gill has been adept and thorough in plumbing the sources. Tiffany Gill has made a major contribution to our understanding that the beauty industry has been central to African American women's [End Page 164] search for economic sufficiency and the struggle for all African Americans' political rights. The one area that Gill might have developed more fully is the important role that beauticians played in encouraging and supporting secondary and higher education for minority women, the luxury of which many had been themselves deprived. Nonetheless, if I were to recommend one book to read on the history of the African American beauty industry, this would be the one. Julia Kirk Blackwelder Texas A&M University, College Station Copyright © 2011 Mid-America American Studies Association

Increasing Physical Activity Among African-American Women and Girls

The benefits of physical activity on diseases and risk factors are well known. Despite the known benefits, many segments of the population, particularly African-American women and girls, do not obtain adequate levels of physical activity. Strategies are needed to identify successful and sustainable interventions to increase physical activity among this population. We reviewed literature published between 2007 and 2009 that focused on increasing physical activity or fitness among this population. We identified 37 studies, 11 of which focused on increasing physical activity. This article summarizes the findings from those 11 studies and provides recommendations for improving strategies to increase physical activity in African-American women and girls.

Neighborhood characteristics, adherence to walking, and depressive symptoms in midlife African American women.

African American women have more symptoms of depressed mood than white women. Adverse neighborhood conditions may contribute to these symptoms. Although reductions in depressive symptoms with physical activity have been demonstrated in white adults, little research has examined the mental health benefits of physical activity in African American women. Further, it is unknown whether physical activity can offset the effects of living in disadvantaged neighborhoods on depressive symptoms. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among neighborhood characteristics, adherence to a physical activity intervention, and change over time in depressive symptoms in midlife African American women. Two hundred seventy-eight women participated in a home-based, 24-week moderate-intensity walking intervention. Either a minimal treatment (MT) or enhanced treatment (ET) version of the intervention was randomly assigned to one of the two community health centers. Walking adherence was measured as the percentage of prescribed walks completed. Objective and perceived measures of neighborhood deterioration and crime were included. Adjusting for demographics, body mass index (BMI), and depressive symptoms at baseline, walking adherence and objective neighborhood deterioration were associated with significantly lower depressive symptoms, whereas perceived neighborhood deterioration was associated with significantly higher depressive symptoms at 24 weeks. Adherence to walking as well as aspects of the environment may influence depressive symptoms in African American women. In addition to supporting active lifestyles, improving neighborhood conditions may also promote mental health among African American women.

Dimensions of Physical Activity in African American Women

Obesity and hypertension are among the international problems for which health professionals urge exercise. Exercise might increase if advisers knew how patients normally expend energy. Using the Yale Physical Activity Survey (YPAS), this U.S. study measured energy expenditure in several dimensions of physical activity including exercise, in African American women with hypertension (N = 100). Over half expended at least 6,000 (kilocalories) kcal per week; most expended over 3,500 of those kcal in everyday work activities. Such activities could be enhanced to supplement aerobic exercise. When physical activity is urged to promote health, it is important to consider kcal expenditure beyond exercise.

African American Social and Cultural Contexts and Physical Activity: Strategies for Navigating Challenges to Participation

We examined the influence of social and cultural contexts on participation in recommended levels of physical activity (PA) among African American women using a grounded theory approach. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and focus groups with 15 physically active African American women. Participants described social and cultural factors that served as challenges for participation in PA. Of particular importance, participants discussed their strategies for overcoming these challenges to initiate and maintain an active lifestyle. Strategies emerged to address three main areas: lack of PA exposure, PA norms and beliefs, and hair maintenance. Understanding contextually appropriate strategies to assist African American women in long-term PA maintenance will help inform effective health promotion efforts to reduce the burden of sedentary lifestyle and chronic disease in this community of women.

Social Support and Companionship Among Active African American Women

To examine the role of physical activity (PA) companions in supporting PA participation among African American women. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and focus groups. Fifteen physically active African American women participated in the study. Grounded theory data analysis techniques were used to develop a taxonomy depicting roles of PA companions for African American women. PA companions functioned in 4 different roles: motivational, social, facilitative, and instructional. Supportive behaviors associated with each role were also elucidated. These findings provide an understanding for the function of companions in sustaining active lifestyle that can be used to inform intervention development.

Self-Efficacy and Social Support as Mediators Between Culturally Specific Dance and Lifestyle Physical Activity

Culturally specific dance has the potential to generate health benefits but is seldom used even among studies advocating culturally specific interventions. This study examined the components of self-efficacy and social support as mediators between culturally specific dance and lifestyle physical activity in African American women (N = 126). An experimental design compared intervention and control groups for mediating effects of self-efficacy and social support on lifestyle physical activity. Findings indicated that only outcome expectations and social support from friends mediated effects. Culturally specific dance is a first step in encouraging African American women to become more physically active and improve health outcomes. The implications are that culturally specific dance programs can improve health outcomes by including members of underserved populations.

Self-Efficacy and Social Support as Mediators Between Culturally Specific Dance and Lifestyle Physical Activity

Culturally specific dance has the potential to generate health benefits but is seldom used even among studies advocating culturally specific interventions. This study examined the components of self-efficacy and social support as mediators between culturally specific dance and lifestyle physical activity in African American women (N = 126). An experimental design compared intervention and control groups for mediating effects of self-efficacy and social support on lifestyle physical activity. Findings indicated that only outcome expectations and social support from friends mediated effects. Culturally specific dance is a first step in encouraging African American women to become more physically active and improve health outcomes. The implications are that culturally specific dance programs can improve health outcomes by including members of underserved populations.

A “New Freedom Movement of Negro Women”: Sojourning for Truth, Justice, and Human Rights during the Early Cold War

This article critically examines the Sojourners for Truth and Justice, a short-lived black women's radical protest organization, and its human rights agenda during the early Cold War. The first and only group in the Communist Left led by African American women, the Sojourners formulated a black left feminism, a distinct politics that combined Communist Party positions on race, gender, and class with black nationalism and black radical women's own lived experiences that paid special attention to the intersectional, transnational nature of their oppression across the diaspora. The Sojourners attempted to mobilize black women against Jim Crow and U.S. Cold War domestic and foreign policy and to expose violations of African Americans' human rights before the United Nations. Sojourners' affiliations with the Communist Left coupled with their human rights agenda prompted cold warriors to view the group as subversive. In addition, the Communist Party's ambivalence toward the Sojourners contributed to the organization's demise by late 1952. Excavating the understudied group complicates the history of African American women's activism, black feminism, American communism, human rights, and the Cold War by revealing the ways in which a small group of black women radicals invented their own unique understandings of liberation and human rights during the McCarthy period. It also illustrates how the Red Scare silenced black women radicals at a crucial juncture in the emergent civil rights movement and kept them from the global political stage. The Sojourners, moreover, provide a lens for appreciating the continuities and the breaks in the postwar black freedom movement and in modern black feminism.

Developing Long-Term Physical Activity Participation: A Grounded Theory Study With African American Women

Regular physical activity is linked to a reduced risk of obesity and chronic disease. African American women bear a disproportionate burden from these conditions and many do not get the recommended amount of physical activity. Long-term success of interventions to initiate and maintain a physically active lifestyle among African American women has not been realized. By clearly elucidating the process of physical activity adoption and maintenance, effective programming could be implemented to reduce African American women's burden from chronic conditions. In-depth interviews were conducted with physically active African American women. Grounded theory, a rigorous qualitative research method used to develop theoretical explanation of human behavior grounded in data collected from those exhibiting that behavior, was used to guide the data collection and analysis process. Data derived inductively from the interviews and focus groups guided the development of a behavioral framework explaining the process of physical activity evolution.

A Church-based Physical Activity Intervention for African American Women

This trial evaluated a 6-month, church-based aerobic exercise intervention to increase physical activity among African American women relative to a health lecture and stretching condition. Participants were 196 women from 11 churches. Churches were randomized to an Aerobic Exercise or Health N Stretch intervention. Results indicated that physical activity was not different in Aerobic Exercise and Stretch N Health, although attendance in both interventions was low. Both groups reduced physical inactivity prevalence from baseline (26% and 18% decline, respectively). Higher baseline social support predicted change in physical activity, regardless of treatment assignment. Researchers must continue to work to identify successful intervention strategies to increase physical activity in African American women who are at disproportionate risk of chronic diseases associated with physical inactivity.

The Social Ecological Model and Physical Activity in African American Women

Little is known about the social and contextual correlates (e.g., social norms, environment, social networks, and organizational support) influencing the adoption and maintenance of regular physical activity among minority and underserved populations. The purpose of this review was to apply the social ecological model to better understand physical activity among African American women. A review of the literature pertaining to correlates of physical activity among African American women was conducted and applied to a social ecological perspective. Understanding and addressing social and contextual correlates of physical activity behavior among African American women are necessary to establish comprehensive programs, particularly within community settings. The social ecological model provides a strong theoretical basis to guide physical activity intervention in this population.

Correlates of Self-Efficacy for Physical Activity in African American Women

ABSTRACT This study examined the correlates of self-efficacy for physical activity in African American women. In bivariate analyses, self-efficacy was higher among women reporting fewer social role constraints, more positive perceptions of physically active women, more positive sense of community, better perceived health, and higher levels of physical activity. In a simultaneous multivariate model, more positive perceived health status (p = .001), higher physical activity level (p = .007), and lower social role constraint (p = .02) were independently associated with higher self-efficacy. Thus, physical activity interventions for African-American women should include strategies to decrease social role constraint and offer safe activities for women with health conditions hindering physical activity.

Personal, social, and environmental correlates of physical activity in urban African-American women

Background African-American women are at risk of chronic diseases for which regular physical activity can provide benefits. This group, however, remains predominantly sedentary. Little research has been undertaken to elucidate the multiple factors that influence their physical activity levels. This study was designed to determine associations among personal, social environmental, and physical environmental factors with physical activity level in urban African-American women. Methods The Women and Physical Activity Survey, an interviewer-administered survey consisting of demographic, personal, and social and physical environmental factors, was given to 234 African-American women living in Baltimore, Maryland. Physical activity level was determined from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. Women were divided into three groups: meeting current recommendations for moderate or vigorous physical activity, insufficiently active, and inactive. Comparisons were made between the group of women that met recommendations versus women who did not, and women who reported any activity versus women who were inactive. Results Twenty-one percent (48) of women met recommendations for physical activity, 61% (143) were insufficiently active, and 18% (43) were inactive. Women who had a partner or who had no children were less likely to engage in some physical activity. Inactive women were more likely than women who participated in some physical activity to know people who exercised. Women who belonged to community groups were more likely to be inactive than women who met current recommendations for physical activity. Women with fewer social roles were more likely to meet current recommendations. Physical environment factors were not associated with physical activity level. Conclusions Further exploration is needed to determine how personal and social environmental and physical environmental factors relate to physical activity in African-American women.

Personal, social, and physical environmental correlates of physical activity in African-American women in South Carolina

Background Little is known about the correlates of physical activity among African-American women living in the southeastern United States. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship of personal, social, cultural, environmental, and policy variables with physical activity among women in ethnic minority groups. Methods The Women and Physical Activity Survey was used in a telephone interview of 917 African-American women living in two counties in South Carolina. The sample of women was selected by random-digit dialing. Results Approximately one third (34.1%) of the women met current recommendations for moderate or vigorous physical activity, 49.4% were insufficiently active, and 16.5% were inactive. Meeting the recommendations or engaging in insufficient activity (versus inactive) was related to attaining higher educational levels, being married or with a partner; being in excellent or very good health, having greater self-efficacy, seeing people exercise in the neighborhood, having more favorable ratings of women who exercise (social issues score), having lower social role strain, and reporting the presence of sidewalks or lighter traffic in the neighborhood. Conclusion Multiple factors influence physical activity. Interventions to increase physical activity should use multilevel approaches that incorporate the personal, social environmental, and physical environmental factors related to participation in physical activity.

Physical Activity Patterns Among Women in Rural Alabama

To explore factors associated with physically active women in a rural community. Physical activity patterns were assessed in 585 women in rural Alabama. When combining leisure and nonleisure activities, 68% of women reported > or = 150 minutes per week. Active African American women tended to be younger (AOR 0.97), married (AOR 1.75), less likely to report arthritis (AOR 0.58), or give health (AOR 0.30) or motivational reasons (AOR 0.39) for not being more active; active white women were less likely to report lower health perception (AOR 0.51). Ethnic differences in factors associated with higher activity levels need to be considered in physical activity interventions.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN YOUNG AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN

African American women are reported to be less physically active than other population groups. This study examined personal behavioral and psychosocial and environmental factors associated with physical activity in African American women living at or below poverty. Most participants engaged in some moderate physical activity through housework and child care; 71% engaged in activity such as walking from one to seven times per week; but only 5% were vigorously active. Seventy-seven percent were active in the past, but 80% dropped out within 6 months, citing "lack of time and feeling bad" as the main reasons. Exercise self-efficacy was positively correlated with beliefs about physical and social outcomes of activity, with more active than inactive women believing that physical activity had more physical health outcomes. One-third of the women reported that family or friends disapproved of their spending time being physically active, and 45% had never been encouraged to be active by a health professional. However, health professionals' influence was positively correlated with weight reduction but not physical activity participation.

Environmental, Policy, and Cultural Factors Related to Physical Activity in African American Women

SUMMARY Six focus groups were conducted in South Carolina with African American women (n = 42) aged 19–51 years to identify factors that influence physical activity. Transcripts were analyzed using NUD*IST. Cultural influences were seen as more important in determining the type of physical activity than its level. Barriers to and enablers of physical activity were identified in the social and physical environments, as were policy issues affecting physical activity in the community and at the work site. Potential community and work site interventions were suggested. Child care and monetary costs were frequently cited as barriers to physical activity.

WORKING IN COMMUNITIES TO PROMOTE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

To optimize health and well-being for the entire population, interventions that have proven efficacious for enhancing physical activity and reducing cardiovascular risk in controlled, clinical settings need to be adapted and tested for effectiveness in community settings. Investigators from Johns Hopkins University have a wealth of experience in conducting interventions in community settings, demonstrating that community-based research is feasible and can be conducted with scientific integrity. Dr. Donna Wills, a media-based Medical Consultant will introduce the particular health needs of Baltimore. The other speakers will present Baltimore-based projects that have addressed improved health and well-being for community participants. These include: (1) physical activity and dietary interventions conducted among youth to reduce cardiovascular risk (Stewart) (2) lifestyle interventions conducted in churches for African Americans to improve cardiovascular health (Becker); (3) a church-based intervention to increase physical activity for African American women (Young); (4) a neighborhood health worker intervention to reduce blood pressure in a low-income, high-risk, urban neighborhood in Baltimore (Clark); and (5) an elementary school mentoring program for older adults to improve well-being and cognitive and physical function (Fried). Speakers will highlight these projects, describe their effectiveness at reaching study goals, and address challenges that are associated with working in community settings.

Descriptive Epidemiology of Physical Activity in African-American Women

Objectives. We assessed walking for exercise and moderate and strenuous physical activity in relation to both demographic and health-related characteristics among African-American women from various parts of the United States who participate in the Black Women's Health Study.Methods. The data were collected in 1995 by mail questionnaire from 64,524 U.S. black women aged 21 to 69 years. The 64,101 women who provided data on physical activity are the subjects of the present report.Results. The present study revealed low levels of physical activity among the African-American women: 57% reported an hour or less per week walking for exercise, 18% reported moderate activity, and 61% reported strenuous physical activity. Strenuous physical activity increased with education. Higher levels of walking for exercise and moderate and strenuous activity were associated with higher levels of participation in strenuous exercise in high school.Conclusion. Physical activity levels are low in African-American women. Based on the findings of the present study it may be suggested that educational efforts to increase levels of physical activity should start at an early age.