Department of Psychology, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA.
J Natl Med Assoc. 2011 Jul;103(7):602-8. doi: 10.1016/s0027-9684(15)30386-2.
African American women have the highest rates of obesity in the United States. The prevalence of obesity in this group calls for the identification of psychosocial factors that increase risk. Psychological stress has been associated with obesity in women; however, there is scant literature that has explored the impact of racism on body mass index (BMI) in African American women.
The current study aimed to determine whether emotional responses and behavioral coping responses to perceived racism were associated with BMI in African American women.
A sample of 110 African American women participated in a community-based study. Height and weight measurements were taken to calculate BMI and participants completed the Perceived Racism Scale and the Perceived Stress Scale.
Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated a significant relationship between BMI and behavioral coping responses to perceived racism. Findings for emotional responses to perceived racism and appraisal of one's daily life as stressful were nonsignificant. Mean comparisons of BMI groups showed that obese African American women used more behavioral coping responses to perceived racism as compared to normal-weight and overweight women in the sample.
Findings suggest that behavioral coping responses better explained increased risk for obesity in African American women. A biobehavioral pathway may explain this finding with a stress-response process that includes cortisol reactivity. Maladaptive behavioral coping responses may also provide insight into obesity risk. Future research is needed to determine which behavioral coping responses place African American women at greater risk for obesity.
美国非裔美国女性的肥胖率最高。这一群体的肥胖患病率表明需要确定增加风险的社会心理因素。心理压力与女性肥胖有关；然而，几乎没有文献探讨过种族主义对非裔美国女性体重指数（BMI）的影响。
本研究旨在确定非裔美国女性对感知到的种族主义的情绪反应和行为应对方式是否与 BMI 相关。
110 名非裔美国女性参加了一项基于社区的研究。测量身高和体重以计算 BMI，并让参与者完成感知种族主义量表和感知压力量表。
层次回归分析表明，BMI 与对感知到的种族主义的行为应对方式之间存在显著关系。对感知到的种族主义的情绪反应和对日常生活压力的评估与 BMI 之间没有显著关系。BMI 组的均值比较表明，与样本中的正常体重和超重女性相比，肥胖的非裔美国女性对感知到的种族主义采用了更多的行为应对方式。
研究结果表明，行为应对方式更好地解释了非裔美国女性肥胖风险的增加。一个生物行为途径可以用包括皮质醇反应在内的应激反应过程来解释这一发现。适应不良的行为应对方式也可能为肥胖风险提供线索。需要进一步研究以确定哪些行为应对方式使非裔美国女性面临更大的肥胖风险。
