Racial discrimination and health-promoting vs damaging behaviors among African-American adults.
Studies have found relationships between racial discrimination and increased health-damaging behaviors among African-Americans, but have not examined possible concomitant decreased health-promoting behaviors. We explored the role of discrimination in two health-promoting behaviors, consuming ≥ 5 fruits/vegetables daily (FVC) and physical activity (PA), for the first time, and likewise examined discrimination's contribution to cigarette smoking, among a sample of N = 2118 African-American adults. Results revealed that discrimination contributed positively to smoking and to PA but was unrelated to FVC. These findings suggest that both adaptive and maladaptive health behaviors might be used to cope with the stress of discrimination.
East Carolina University, USA. corrali@ecu.edu
Irma
I
Corral
Hope
H
Landrine
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D005638:Fruit; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D063505:Racism; D014675:Vegetables; D055815:Young Adult