Linking Exercise for Advancing Daily Stress (LEADS) Management and Resilience in Black Families

University Of South Carolina At Columbia, Columbia SC

Investigators

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Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract Chronic stressors, such as racial discrimination, have wide-reaching harmful effects on the physical, social, and psychological well-being of many African American (AA) families. These stressors place some AA adolescents, who already experience low rates of physical activity (PA) and high rates of obesity, at even greater risk for developing chronic diseases. Previous family-based interventions have targeted PA, diet, and sedentary behaviors to prevent and manage overweight and obesity, but few have been successful for AA adolescents. We propose that this may be because racial stressors, such as racial discrimination, are a major barrier to engagement in health promotion efforts, which has been significantly overlooked in previous interventions for AA families. Resilience-based interventions that empower youth against the deleterious effects of racial discrimination have shown improvements across a broad range of outcomes including mental health, academic achievement, and risk-taking behaviors. However, no previous study has evaluated a family resilience and cultural assets approach for increasing engagement in PA in AA families. The Linking Exercise for Advancing Daily Stress (LEADS) Management and Resilience intervention integrates a cultural strength-based intervention to address racial discrimination and related stressors to promote behavioral skills for increasing PA in overweight AA adolescents and their parents. Based on Murry’s Model, Family Systems, and Social Cognitive Theories, the proposed intervention integrates components that foster ethnic-racial identity (meaning and value of racial group identity), ethnic-racial socialization (communication about positive and negative racialized experiences), cultural assets (spirituality, cultural traditions), and family resilience (parent support, positive parenting, family routines). We propose that these protective factors as integrated into the LEADS intervention will buffer the negative effects of racial stressors, especially for those who have greater (vs. lower) perceived racial discrimination at baseline, which will lead to greater improvements in PA. This approach recognizes the considerable heterogeneity that exists among AA families in terms of experiences with racial discrimination as a moderate variable. Our pilot research indicates that the LEADS family-based resilience intervention was feasible and acceptable and led to increased moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) for adolescents. Thus, the primary aim of this study is 1) to evaluate the efficacy of the LEADS intervention and moderation effects of perceived racial discrimination on increasing MVPA from baseline to post-intervention, and maintenance at a 6-month follow-up in overweight AA adolescents. Secondary aims will examine 2) the effect of the LEADS intervention and moderating effects of racial discrimination on light PA, dietary intake, family mealtime, body mass index, waist circumference, and blood pressure outcomes, 3) the effects of the intervention and moderating effects on parent outcomes, as well as examining 4) mediators of the intervention effect on changes in PA.