Physical activity attitudes of African American and white adolescent girls.
BACKGROUND
Understanding the attitudes of African American adolescent girls toward physical activity may help identify strategies to enable these adolescents to adopt a more physically active lifestyle that could track into adulthood.


OBJECTIVE
To identify and compare attitudes of African American adolescent girls toward physical activity with the attitudes of white adolescent girls.


METHODS
Six focus groups (N = 49) were conducted with 9th- through 12th-grade African American and white adolescent girls. Participants were recruited from community and medical settings in an urban city. Groups were audiotaped, coded, and analyzed for themes.


RESULTS
African American participants were more accepting of their body image than were the white participants as individuals, as a community, and in the media. Themes common among African American and white participants included appearance and hygiene, value of physical activity, and issues of masculinity. Physically active adolescents reported on the significance of social support in motivating their physical activity participation.


CONCLUSIONS
Future research on these attitudes could help inform the design of effective and culturally appropriate interventions to promote physical activity in African American and white adolescent girls.
Mabry
Iris R
IR
Division of General Pediatrics, Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. imabry@med.umich.edu
Young
Deborah R
DR
Cooper
Lisa A
LA
Meyers
Todd
T
Joffe
Alain
A
Duggan
Anne K
AK
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012649:Self Concept; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*