title: Improving Urban Minority Girls' Health Via Community Summer Programming.
abstract: Summertime has emerged as a high-risk period for weight gain among low-income minority youth who often experience a lack of resources when not attending school. Structured programming may be an effective means of reducing risk for obesity by improving obesogenic behaviors among these youth. The current multi-method study examined sedentary time, physical activity, and dietary intake among low-income urban minority girls in two contexts: an unstructured summertime setting and in the context of a structured 4-week community-based summer day camp program promoting physical activity. Data were analyzed using paired-sample t tests and repeated-measure analyses of variance with significance at the p < .05 level. Results evidenced no significant differences in total calories and fat consumed between the unstructured and structured settings. Participants exhibited significant increases in fruit consumption and physical activity and significant decreases in sedentary time of over 2 h/day and dairy consumption when engaged in structured summer programming. All improvements were independent of weight status and age, and African-American participants evidenced greater changes in physical activity during programming. The study concludes that structured, community-based summertime programming may be associated with fewer obesogenic behaviors in low-income urban youth and may be a powerful tool to address disparities in weight gain and obesity among high-risk samples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, 1032 W. Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL, 60660, USA.
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bohnert
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, 1032 W. Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL, 60660, USA. cbates@luc.edu.
authors.forename: Carolyn R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Bates
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, 1032 W. Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL, 60660, USA.
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Heard
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, 1032 W. Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL, 60660, USA.
authors.forename: Kimberly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Burdette
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Amanda K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, 1032 W. Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL, 60660, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Silton
authors.affiliation: Public Health Sciences, Loyola University Chicago, Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Lara R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Dugas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002641:Chicago / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D003153:Community Health Services; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011203:Poverty; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012621:Seasons; D014504:Urban Health / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Adolescent; Dietary intake; Health behavior; Obesity; Physical activity; Race/ethnicity; Summer