Exploring Women’s Experiences: Embodied Pathways and Influences for Exercise Participation

Beyond the individual: Socio-ecological factors impacting activity after gestational diabetes mellitus

AIM

The risk of Type 2 Diabetes is 10 times higher after a pregnancy with Gestational Diabetes. Physical activity can independently reduce this risk, yet engagement with physical activity remains low after Gestational Diabetes. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the barriers and facilitators to the uptake of physical activity after Gestational Diabetes in the United Kingdom, using a socio-ecological approach.

METHODS

The paper was written following the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research. Patient and Public Involvement contributed to the study's conceptualisation and design. Participants were recruited through an audit of Gestational Diabetes cases at a local Teaching Hospital in 2020. Twelve participants took part in semi-structured one-to-one interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to generate themes in iterative rounds of refinement. The final themes were then organised using the socio-ecological model.

RESULTS

Participants were all over 31 years old, predominantly self-identified as White British and were all in employment but were evenly spread across UK-based deprivation deciles. Ten themes were generated and organised according to the four levels of the socio-ecological model: intrapersonal (beliefs about activity, recovering from birth), social (health care professionals, family and partner, role as a mother), organisational (access and cost, environment, childcare and work) and community (connecting women with recent Gestational Diabetes).

CONCLUSIONS

Many of the amenable barriers and facilitators to physical activity were beyond the intrapersonal level, based on higher levels of the socio-ecological model (social, organisational and community). Multi-level interventions are needed to effectively address all barriers.

The Importance of Reflexivity in Program Development: A Case Study Involving Teaching Self-Defense to Middle School Girls in PE Class

This research used a self-defense program to explore how middle school girls could change their perspectives on the gendered roles of victim and protector within an empowered self-defense approach. Taking the dual role of researcher and self-defense instructor, I developed a program to influence changing information strips directed toward gender norms, behavior, and discourse. Reflexive thematic analysis was utilized due to its intersection of the researcher's experience, literature, and theory. The research consisted of 40 girls journaling and 23 girls completing a post-program survey. Findings suggested that reflexive body techniques through self-defense could potentially impact internalized gendered information strips.

A Mixed-Methods Study of Women's Empowerment through Physical Activities: Relationships with Self-Efficacy and Physical Activity Levels

Participation in empowering physical activities may increase self-efficacy and facilitate long-term engagement. This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study examined the relationship between physical activity empowerment, exercise self-efficacy, and engagement. Midwestern women (N = 147) aged 18-65, 90% white, completed an online cross-sectional survey that captured exercise engagement and self-efficacy for exercise. Participants entered up to five types of physical activities and ranked them from most to least empowering. Physical activities were coded by training type for statistical comparisons using independent t-tests. After survey completion, seventeen women completed a 30 min, 8-question semi-structured interview. Women ranked resistance training as the most empowering physical activity type (38%), followed by running (14%). Total and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and self-efficacy for exercise scores did not vary between women empowered by cardiorespiratory or resistance training (i.e., total physical activity t(136) = 1.13, p = 0.11; moderate-to-vigorous physical activity t(136) = 2.42, p = 0.06; and self-efficacy for exercise t(136) = 0.66, p = 0.07). Themes identified from the interviews included: (1) women's physical activity participation barriers are gender-centric, (2) physical activity participation benefits extend beyond physical health, (3) some exercise types are more empowering than others, and (4) empowerment and enjoyment are closely related. Exploring empowerment in exercise may reveal mechanisms to facilitate exercise self-efficacy and engagement in physical activity.

Eating Behavior of Brazilian College Students: Influences of Lifestyle, Negative Affectivity, and Personal Characteristics

In this study we proposed to estimate the impact of lifestyle, negative affectivity, and college students' personal characteristics on eating behavior. We aimed to verify that negative affectivity moderates the relationship between lifestyle and eating behavior. We assessed eating behaviors of cognitive restraint (CR), uncontrolled eating (UE), and emotional eating (EE)) with the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-18. We assessed lifestyle with the Individual Lifestyle Profile, and we assessed negative affectivity with the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21. We constructed and tested (at p < .05) a hypothetical causal structural model that considered global (second-order) and specific (first-order) lifestyle components, negative affectivity and sample characteristics for each eating behavior dimension. Participants were 1,109 college students (M age = 20.9, SD = 2.7 years; 65.7% females). We found significant impacts of lifestyle second-order components on negative affectivity (β = -0.57-0.19; p < 0.001-0.01) in all models. Physical and psychological lifestyle components impacted directly only on CR (β=-0.32-0.81; p < 0.001). Negative affectivity impacted UE and EE (β = 0.23-0.30; p < 0.001). For global models, we found no mediation pathways between lifestyle and CR or UE. For specific models, negative affectivity was a mediator between stress management and UE (β=-0.07; p < 0.001). Negative affectivity also mediated the relationship between thoughts of dropping an undergraduate course and UE and EE (β = 0.06-0.08; p < 0.001). Participant sex and weight impacted all eating behavior dimensions (β = 0.08-0.34; p < 0.001-0.01). Age was significant for UE and EE (β=-0,14- -0.09; p < 0.001-0.01). Economic stratum influenced only CR (β = 0.08; p = 0.01). In sum, participants' lifestyle, negative emotions and personal characteristics were all relevant for eating behavior assessment.