PURPOSE: To determine whether the intra-abdominal adipose tissue (IAAT)-parity relationship found in European-American women also exists in African-American women and to determine whether dopamine plays a mediating role. METHODS: Physical activity energy expenditure (using ARTE or Activity-Related Time Equivalent derived using doubly labeled water and represented as min/d), body composition (air plethysmography, computed tomography), and 24-hr urine dopamine was measured in 44 EA and 47 AA premenopausal women. Subjects were evaluated during the follicular phase of their menstrual cycles and none had diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance, thyroid disease, were smokers, were nursing an infant, or had given birth within 12 months. Differences between race and parity were determined using 2 × 2 analysis of covariance with age as the adjusting variable. Pearson product correlations were computed to determine potential interrelations and linear regression was used to develop prediction models for IAAT and dopamine. Age, race, parity (# of live births), percent body fat, ARTE, and VO2max were used as independent variables. RESULTS: Parous EA and AA women had significantly higher IAAT than their nulliparous counterparts (100.1±28.5 and 76.2±34.8 vs. 75.9±29.1 and59.6±15.0 cm2, p<0.01). AA women had significantly higher 24-hr urine dopamine than EA women (318.65±84.6 vs. 243.4±70.3, p<0.01) while parous women had significantly lower 24-hr urine dopamine than nulliparous women (229.0±83.4 vs. 333.1±71.5, p<0.01). Multiple regression analysis for modeling IAAT indicated that race, parity, dopamine, ARTE, and VO2max were all significant and independent contributors in the model (Unstandardized β's: race −33.6± 7.4, p<0.01; parity (# of births) 10.0±3.4, p<0.01; 24-h urine dopamine 0. 1±<0.1, p<0.05; ARTE (min/d) −0. 1±<0.1, p<0.01; VO2max (ml/kg/min) −2.7±1.0, p<0.01. CONCLUSIONS: Independent of the potential confounders of age, race, percent body fat, IAAT, 24-h dopamine, physical activity, and VO2max parous EA and AA women had more IAAT than their nulliparous counterparts. Although dopamine was found to be significantly lower in parous women and higher in AA's it did not explain racial or parity differences in IAAT.