The Together Everyone Achieves More Physical Activity Trial (TEAM-PA)

University Of South Carolina At Columbia, Columbia SC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract The overall goal of this proposal is to expand upon the evaluation of interpersonal mechanisms in an ongoing group-based physical activity (PA) intervention for inactive African American women, the “Together Everyone Achieves More Physical Activity” trial (TEAM-PA; R01HL160618). Drawing from Social Cognitive Theory, Self- Determination Theory, Group Dynamics Theory, and research on an Afro-Centric Worldview, the TEAM-PA trial targets four group-based interpersonal factors, which are hypothesized to be key interpersonal mechanisms for promoting total minutes of physical activity per day: collective efficacy, group cohesion, and reciprocal support. The proposed supplement study aims to expand upon the parent R01 by evaluating in greater depth how interpersonal factors facilitate changes in physical activity across time using experience sampling methods. Past efforts to understand interpersonal mechanisms of change for physical activity among African American women have been limited by primarily using between-person approaches for assessing mediators (e.g., cross-sectional surveys), which do not fully capture African American women’s lived experiences and fluctuations across time and contexts. Furthermore, extensive research has demonstrated the importance of support for physical activity among family and friends among African American women, but such studies rarely adopt an ecological framework to evaluate the simultaneous impact of support for physical activity across multiple systems (e.g., group-based programs, family, friends, community), or the extent to which support for physical activity fluctuates across time and contexts. Thus, the proposed supplement study seeks to address these limitations by adding three 7-day waves of experience sampling methods across the 10-week treatment period to better understand how interpersonal factors (both within the group-based intervention and across participants’ broader support networks) fluctuate across time and contexts to impact daily physical activity. By evaluating within-person changes over time and contexts and adopting a systems-level focus, we propose that this approach will better capture African American women’s lived experiences and provide more comprehensive support for when and why interpersonal factors promote greater physical activity among African American women. The specific aims of the proposed supplement study are: to test whether fluctuations in the daily group-based interpersonal factors (collective efficacy, relatedness, group cohesion, reciprocal support) impact increases in daily total minutes of physical activity over time [Aim 1]; to evaluate whether fluctuations in the group-based interpersonal factors and fluctuations in support from one’s broader support network independently impact increases in daily PA across time [Aim 2]; and to determine whether contextual aspects of support (e.g., network source, type of support, physical proximity) act as moderators and help to explain when fluctuations in support from one’s broader support network are most impactful on daily total minutes of PA across time [Aim 3].