Focus Groups with Latinas in NYC: Weight Control, Physical Activity and Paradoxical Body Images
- Project Directors: A. Viladrich & M. Yeh
- This Project was funded by two PSC-CUNY Grants
Goals
Six focus groups of Latinas were conducted in New York City, between the late Summer 2006 and early Spring 2007. The groups examined the psychosocial and cultural factors that impinge upon Latina women’s ability to achieve and maintain sufficient levels of physically activity. The use of physical activity for weight control was examined in the context of Latinas’ social lives before and after migrating to the US. The studies also addressed the psychosocial and cultural factors that influence Latinas’ body image and their possible conditioning effect on self-esteem and self-efficacy. To that end, the studies also focused on the relationship between Latinas’ body image and their ability to maintain a desired weight.
Methods
A multi-method data collection system was designed based on individual instruments and group discussion guidelines. Individual instruments included a sociodemographic profile, a self-assessment of weight and physical activity, and a body image scale. Individual questionnaires were filled out at the beginning of the session to collect women’s self-reported weight and height, basic sociodemographic characteristics, such as age, education, income, and marital status, as well as body shape related questions. The body shape rating scale consisted of 9 female silhouettes ranging from very thin (1.0) to very heavy (9.0) and was used to assess the following four items: 1) the participant’s current size and shape, 2) the size and shape the participant would most like to be, 3) the size and shape the participant feels that is most attractive, and 4) the size and shape the participant feels that men find the most attractive. These measures estimated whether body satisfaction in Latina women varied as a factor of their Body Mass Index (BMI) and level of physical activity.
The focus group interviews were divided in two sections. The first part addressed participants’ cultural and personal factors related to their perceptions of body weight and shape, including their body satisfaction vis-à-vis their weight control efforts. Specific themes included women’s concerns about gaining weight, their strategies to keep an optimal weight, their perceived gender and ethnic differences in terms of body shape and optimal weight, women’s past and present experiences with weight control, and obstacles to maintaining an optimal weight. The second part of the interview addressed participants’ beliefs and practices regarding physical activity, including their motivations to be physical active and the barriers they experienced to engaging in regular physical activity (e.g., structural, cultural and personal).
Logistics
Study participants were recruited through flyers posted at local churches, grocery stores, health clubs, e-mail bulletin boards and word-of-mouth. Participants signed a consent form and filled out a short questionnaire before each session. Each session lasted approximately one to one and half hours and was tape-recorded for later transcription and content analysis. All sessions were held in private classrooms located in public educational facilities in the neighbourhood of Washington Heights, to which women had easy access.
This project received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and participants signed a consent form and were compensated for their time. All sessions were conducted in English and were led by team members with experience in facilitating focus group interviews. Each session lasted approximately one and half to two hours and was tape-recorded for later transcription and content analysis. Individual questionnaire data were entered into Excel before exporting to SPSS for analysis. ANOVA and t-tests were performed to test group significance at p< 0.05 level. Focus group data were transcribed, entered as text, and then coded using QSR NVivo Software. Focus group transcripts were carefully analyzed by two researchers in the team who identified recurrent themes, both within and across groups. Detailed codes were organized along four general categories that included: women’s concerns about gaining weight, external pressures to keep an optimal weight (media and family), body and weight satisfaction, and main paradigms influencing body size and shape.
Results
Quantitative Results
A total number of 44 women participated in the focus groups. Seventy percent of the study participants were foreign born, with a majority from the Dominican Republic (47.7%). The average age was 38.7 years old and almost 90% of them completed some college or above. In addition, the mean BMI was 27.5 kg/m2 with approximately 55% of them being overweight or obese. Analysis revealed significantly heavier mean scores for participants’ current body size (4.4 ±1.3) as compared to their desired shape (3.1 ±0.8), the shape believed to be most attractive (2.9 ±0.7), and the shape thought to be most attractive to men (2.8 ±0.9). Table 2 shows the results of body shape scores by body mass index and physical activity patterns.
Results indicate a self-identification with higher current body size among obese women compared with overweight and normal weight participants. Findings also revealed statistical variation in body shape rankings between normal weight (BMI <25) and obese (BMI ≥30) participants, and between overweight (BMI 25-29) and obese participants. Normal and overweight women wanted to be slimmer and felt that a slimmer figure is more attractive than did the obese women. Also, normal and overweight women preferred smaller shapes and felt that a slimmer figure is more attractive than did obese women. Interestingly, women of all three weight categories shared a similar view point of what body shape is most appealing to men; they all thought that a slim body size (with a score of about 3 on the body shape scale) is most attractive to them. As for body shape scores and physical activity patterns, those who participated in monthly or yearly (infrequent) vigorous exercise reported statistically thinner current and desired body shapes, than those who did not know or did not answer. In the next section, we analyze qualitative data that emerged from the group interviews and provide some interpretations on these results to account for women’s discrepancies between their desired body types and their actual self-reported scores.
Qualitative Results
Both physically active and non-physically active women underscored the importance of regular physical activity for keeping an optimal weight. Although all women acknowledged the role of access barriers, social support, and self-management as strongly associated with their ability to routinely engage in physical activity, physically active participants acknowledged having stronger supportive networks (buddy systems) of physically active peers. This reassured their ability to maintain regular levels of physical activity even when dealing with daily barriers, such as having long-working hours, multi-tasking activities, and little personal time. Nevertheless, these barriers were paramount among non-physically active women, who did not count on physically active peer-support groups. The latter group of women shared their perceived obstacles to being physically active including access and financial barriers, and lack of physically active peer-support networks. Latinas born abroad also mentioned the impact of their post-migratory experiences in their negative life styles (e.g., working long hours, having no access to parks, and dealing with high levels of stress) along with the downside aspects of acculturation. The latter was exemplified by changes in their dietary practices once they migrated to the US (e.g., eating more fried foods and less fruit), the acquisition of sedentary habits (e.g., using mass transportation instead of walking, watching TV), and the lack of physically active support networks.
A prevailing theme among participants was families’ influence on their weight status. Participants, especially younger women, attributed their weight problems to an over-abundance of foods on the table and to their parents’ or older relatives’ desire or pressure for them to overeat. In addition, the “weight gain is cheap but weight loss is expensive” perception was commonly expressed. This refers to the availability of tasty, cheap, and unwholesome foods versus the cost and lack of access to healthy alternatives, such as fruits and vegetables. Among non-physically active participants, alternative means of weight loss seemed popular. These included diet pills, supplements for assumed purposes of raising metabolism, and drinking herbal teas and different concoctions of fruit and vegetable drinks known to them from their native countries.
Women in both samples (physically and non-physically active participants) mentioned health maintenance and body image as strong motivators for physical activity and balanced eating. Nevertheless, many participants revealed a body image paradox, expressed as a contradictory interpretative framework regarding body image. While they acknowledged the influence of mainstream stereotypes that portray the fit/thin woman as synonymous with the Caucasian body type, they also introduced the “Latina” curvy shape as a counter-image to which they also subscribed. This contradiction was reflected in their stated struggles to keep a desired body weight and in their mixed feeling regarding the benefits of physical activity.
Conclusions and Implications
The findings summarized above provide unique data regarding Latina women’s body image, weight-loss efforts and the role and importance of formal and informal buddy systems in promoting regular physical activity. The importance of family-oriented interventions should be emphasized among Latinas. The effectiveness and safety of alternative approaches using unknown substances for weight loss also deserves further investigation. In addition, health messages should challenge a uniform model of womanhood, which may have a negative impact on Latinas’ efforts to control weight. The promotion of more realistic body types, which are in tune with women’s differences, may be more effective in targeting non-physically active Latino women in the US.
