Attitudes Toward Physical Activity of White Midlife Women

doi:10.1111/j.1552-6909.2011.01249.x

Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing

Volume 40, Issue 3, May–June 2011, Pages 312-321

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2011.01249.x Get rights and content

ABSTRACT

Objective

To explore attitudes toward physical activity of White midlife women in the United States using a feminist perspective.

Design

A cross‐sectional qualitative study using a thematic analysis.

Setting

Internet communities for midlife women.

Participants

Twenty‐nine White midlife women in the United States recruited using a convenience sampling method.

Methods

We used 17 topics on attitudes toward physical activity and ethnic‐specific contexts to administer an online forum. We analyzed the data using thematic analysis.

Results

We found three themes: thinking without action, gendered and sedentary culture, and motivating myself. The women knew and understood the necessity of physical activity for their physical and mental health but in most cases had not been able to take action to increase their physical activities. Although the culture that circumscribed the women's physical activity was sedentary in nature, the women tried to motivate themselves to increase their physical activities through several creative strategies.

Conclusion

The findings strongly suggest that although women were doing their best, American culture itself needs to be changed to help women increase physical activity in their daily lives.

Section snippets

Theoretical Basis

We chose to use a feminist perspective to theoretically guide the study because we wanted to be open to the women's own explanations and opinions and subsequently disclose the women's own perspectives and views on physical activity. Women's own perspectives and views on physical activity have rarely been incorporated in existing theoretical frameworks that researchers can use to explain the relationships of physical activity to other related concepts and subconcepts. Using feminist theory, we

Methods

This study was a cross‐sectional qualitative study using a thematic analysis. The Institutional Review Board of the researchers' institution approved the study. This was a 6‐month online forum study that was part of a larger Internet study on ethnic specific midlife women's attitudes toward physical activity (Im et al., 2010). The online forum was chosen for this study because it provides a more comfortable environment for some to discuss sensitive personal health issues and has been suggested

Findings

Three major themes were extracted from the data analysis process: thinking without action, gendered and sedentary culture, and motivating myself. Each major theme had several associated subthemes that were linked to it.

Discussion

The third theme of the study, motivating myself, could be the overriding theme of all the themes found in this study. The White midlife women in the United States had very positive attitudes toward physical activity: the women knew and understood the necessity of physical activity for their physical and mental health although they could not take action to increase their physical activities in most cases (the first theme). Although the culture that circumscribed the women's physical activity was

Conclusions

Based on the findings, we suggest that women's health nurses develop interventions that could provide tangible supports and adequate and reliable information to midlife White women in the United States. The findings reported in this paper indicated that the midlife White women needed supports that could enable them to actually participate in physical activity and information that could fit with their actual requirements for physical activity. When considering the women's busy daily schedules

Acknowledgments

Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NINR/NHLBI; R01NR010568). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Many cultural factors negatively influenced PA behaviors in women. Cultural attitudes about female gender role norms were one of the most significant barriers to PA in all the ethnic minority groups (D'Alonzo, 2012; D'Alonzo & Fischetti, 2008; Harley et al., 2009; Im et al., 2008; Im et al., 2012; Im, Ko, et al., 2013; Im, Lee, et al., 2013; Martinez et al., 2009; Peterson, 2011). Women felt pressured to keep their feminine appearance as part of gender norms.
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RESEARCHAttitudes Toward Physical Activity of White Midlife Women

ABSTRACT

Objective

Design

Setting

Participants

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Section snippets

Theoretical Basis

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

Maturitas

Geriatric Nursing

Nursing Outlook

International Journal of Nursing Studies

Journal of Obstetric, Gynecological, & Neonatal Nursing

Preventive Medicine

Conceptual models for women's health research

Annual Review of Nursing Research

Measuring the determinants of physical activity in the community

Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport

Understanding environmental influences on nutrition and physical activity behaviors

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Technologies of the gendered body

Interventions to promote physical activity among African American women

Public Health Nursing

Do Internet‐based support interventions change perceptions of social support?

American Journal of Community Psychology

Physical activity

Health Care Women International

Using thematic analysis in psychology

Qualitative Research in Psychology

Exercise psychology

Stage of readiness to exercise in ethnically diverse women

Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise

Women and sport

Canadian Women Studies

Physical activity and minority women

Health Education and Behavior

Environmental, policy, and cultural factors related to physical activity in a diverse sample of women

Women and Health

Physical activity in young African American women

Health Care for Women International

Relative influences of individual, social environmental, and physical environmental correlates of walking

American Journal of Public Health

Rigor in feminist research

Advances in Nursing Science

Perceived barriers to exercise and stage of exercise adoption in older women of different racial/ethnic groups

Women and Health

RESEARCH
Attitudes Toward Physical Activity of White Midlife Women