Book Description

Since 1980 the prevalence of obesity has nearly doubled worldwide, with at least 2.8 million yearly adult deaths attributed to obesity-related complications (“WHO | Obesity and overweight,” n.d.). Results from the 2011-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) indicate that 31.80% of children, 2 to 19 years of age, were overweight or obese, with African American children having the second highest prevalence (20.20%) when compared to their Asian (8.60%), Caucasian (14.10%) and Hispanic (22.40%) peers (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2014). Similarly, African American adults ( 20 yeas-old) had the highest obesity prevalence (47.80%) when compared to their Asian (10.90%), Caucasian (33.40%) and Hispanic (42.00%) peers (Ogden et al., 2014). Physical Activity (PA) has been established as a promising method in weight management and obesity prevention (“Physical Activity for Everyone,” n.d.). However, the majority of adults and children are not physically active (“CDC - Facts - Data - Physical Activity - DNPAO,” n.d.), this is especially evident among minority populations (National Center for Health Statistics (US), 2012; “NHIS - Advance Data Reports,” n.d.). Specifically in 2007, 62.10% of African American children did not get the daily recommended amount of vigorous PA, which was only second to Hispanic children (69.30%) (National Center for Health Statistics (US), 2012). African American adults are also less physically active when compared to their Caucasians and Hispanic peers (“NHIS - Advance Data Reports,” n.d.). Therefore, it is of outmost importance to find ways to reduce this trend and increase PA behaviors, defined as PA frequency, perceived support for PA, and PA barriers, within African American families. Researchers have shown that PA behaviors in both children and adults are associated with the parent-child relationship (Chang, Nitzke, Guilford, Adair, & Hazard, 2008; Edwardson & Gorely, 2010; Fawcett, Garton, & Dandy, 2009; Hamilton & White, 2010; Hinkle, Kirschenbaum, Pecora, & Germann, 2011; Lopez-Dicastillo, Grande, & Callery, 2013; Madsen, McCulloch, & Crawford, 2009; McElroy, 2002; Puglisi, Okely, Pearson, & Vialle, 2010; Wilson, Lawman, Segal, & Chappell, 2011). This is even more meaningful within the African American community given their interdependent and collectivist family culture (McAdoo, 2007). Therefore, the present study focused on describing African American primary parents (or caregivers) PA behaviors and how parental factors are associated with children’s perception of parental support for PA and their weight status. Similar to previous research, it was found that parental behaviors such as parental modeling (Madsen et al., 2009), parental perceived support for their child’s PA (Edwardson & Gorely, 2010; Wilson et al., 2011) and parental stated barriers for their child to be physically active (Adachi-Mejia et al., 2010; Hamilton & White, 2010; Lopez-Dicastillo et al., 2013; Puglisi et al., 2010; Thompson, 2010) were associated with their children’s perception of parental support for PA. However, little support was found for associations between the child’s weight status and their primary parents’ PA behaviors and weight status. Consequently, future research studies focused on African American parents and or children’s PA behaviors should include the nuclear and extended family members, given that PA behaviors are learned and encouraged or discouraged within the family. In addition, measuring the family members PA behaviors can help explore the bi-directional relationship that each family member has on each other’s PA behaviors.