Objectives-The Activity Support Scale (ACTS) was expanded for use with African American families. Its factorial invariance and internal reliability were examined for non-Hispanic white and African American parents.Methods-The ACTS was modified to improve its applicability to African American families based on information from five focus groups with 27 African American parents of elementary school-aged children. Between 2006 and 2008, the revised scale was administered to 119 African American and 117 non-Hispanic white parents in northeastern NY and Alabama. Its factorial invariance across race/ethnicity and internal consistency were examined.Results-Factor analysis of the revised scale, the Activity Support Scale for Multiple Groups (ACTS-MG), identified four parenting factors in white and African American parents including logistic support, modeling, use of community resources to promote physical activity (PA), and restriction of sedentary behaviors. Results supported the scale's internal reliability and factorial invariance across race/ethnicity. Conclusion-The ACTS-MG is appropriate for use with non-Hispanic white and AfricanAmerican families and will enable the extension of current research with white families to the examination of strategies supporting PA in African American families. Additional psychometric work with the ACTS-MG is encouraged.

The relationship between chronic stress and weight management efforts may be a concern for African American (AA) women, who have a high prevalence of obesity, high stress levels, and modest response to obesity treatment. This pilot study randomly assigned 44 overweight/obese AA women with moderate to high stress levels to either a 12-week adaptation of the Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Balance intervention augmented with stress management strategies (Lifestyle + Stress) or Lifestyle Alone. A trend toward greater percentage of baseline weight loss at 3-month data collection was observed in Lifestyle + Stress (-2.7 ± 3.6%) compared with Lifestyle Alone (-1.4 ± 2.3%; p = .17) and a greater reduction in salivary cortisol (Lifestyle + Stress: -0.2461 ± 0.3985 ng/mL; Lifestyle Alone: -0.0002 ± 0.6275 ng/mL; p = .20). These promising results suggest that augmenting a behavioral weight control intervention with stress management components may be beneficial for overweight/obese AA women with moderate to high stress levels and merit further investigation with an adequately powered trial.

The workplace may be an ideal venue for engaging African American women in behavioral interventions for weight reduction. This study examines the effectiveness of a culturally-enhanced EatRight dietary intervention among a group of predominately African American women in a workplace setting. Thirty-nine women volunteered for this cross-over design study, with 27 completing. The control period involved observation of participants for 22 weeks after receiving standard counseling on lifestyle methods to achieve a healthy weight; following the control period, participants crossed over to the 22-week intervention period. The intervention was culturally-enhanced using feedback derived from formative assessment and delivered as 15 group sessions. The primary outcome measure was the difference in weight change between the control and intervention periods; changes in waist circumference and quality of life were secondary outcomes. Most participants were obese with a mean baseline body mass index of 36 kg/m2, weight of 97.9 kg and waist circumference of 111 cm. Weight increased during the control period by 0.7 kg but decreased by 2.6 kg during the intervention (net difference = −3.4 kg, p<0.001), with 30% of participants losing ≥5% of body weight. Compared to the control period, there was a significant decrease in waist circumference (−3.6 cm, p = 0.006) and improvement in weight-related quality of life (5.7, p = 0.03). This pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of a culturally-enhanced behavioral weight loss intervention in a predominately African American workplace setting. The workplace may be conducive for targeting African American women who are disproportionately affected by obesity.