Relationship between Perceived Discrimination and Sedentary Behavior in Adults

Sedentary behavior has emerged as an important target of health promotion and obesity prevention efforts1 due to its direct association with obesity2–7 and other risk factors that diminish cardiovascular health.8–14 Sedentary behaviors such as watching television, using a computer, reading, and “sitting and socializing” are associated with higher body mass index independent of physical activity.1,8,10 Psychological factors such as depression have been associated with sedentary behaviors.4,15,16 However, to our knowledge, the relationship between discrimination and sedentary behaviors has not been explored. Routine discriminatory experiences can become a chronic stressor that erodes an individual’s protective resources and increases vulnerability to physical illness.17,18 Discriminatory experiences can produce significantly heightened psychological and physiological stress responses18 and are related to unhealthy behaviors including cigarette smoking,19 alcohol dependence,20 and both prescription and illicit drug use.21,22 Discrimination also has been associated with health outcomes including self-rated health, hypertension, and atherosclerotic disease.23 According to the social cognitive theory and the tenets of self-efficacy, if individuals do not believe that they can control aversive events, like discriminatory experiences, they may distress themselves and subsequently impair their level of functioning.24 Pascoe and Smart25 suggest that discriminatory experiences may lead to increased participation in unhealthy behaviors as a way of escaping the negative affect and cognition that perceptions of discrimination may arouse. Whereas prior studies have investigated the association of psychosocial factors and physical activity,26,27 few have investigated these factors in relation to sedentary behaviors. Such an association is plausible because perceived discrimination has been associated with the previously mentioned health behaviors,19–22 as well as depressive symptoms,4,15,16,28–32 an established predictor of sedentary behavior. It is particularly important to assess the association between discriminatory experiences and sedentary behavior in a sample of black and white men and women because the rates of sedentary behavior and reporting of discriminatory experiences varies according to these characteristics and the association between the 2 may vary by race and sex. The objective of this study was to examine associations of self-reported discriminatory experiences with sedentary behaviors in a bi-racial sample of men and women. We hypothesized that discriminatory experiences are positively associated with sedentary behavior. Screen time was explored separately to improve understanding of these increasingly common modifiable sedentary behaviors so that potential interventions can be targeted towards at-risk populations. Answering this question is important because identifying a psychosocial determinant of sedentary behavior may help researchers explore various methods to decrease this modifiable cardiovascular risk factor. Findings from our study can be used to assess the psychosocial mechanisms of sedentary behavior and the development of behavioral interventions targeting sedentary behavior.