EXPLORING AFRICAN AMERICAN MOTHER/DAUGHTER DYADS: PERCEPTIONS, BELIEFS, VALUES AND PARENTAL INFLUENCE ON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SPORT By Evelyn Monteal Oregon A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Kinesiology-Doctor of Philosophy 2013 ABSTRACT EXPLORING AFRICAN AMERICAN MOTHER/DAUGHTER DYADS: PERCEPTIONS, BELIEFS, VALUES AND PARENTAL INFLUENCE ON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SPORT By Evelyn Monteal Oregon Using Eccles comprehensive model of parental influences on their children’s motivation and achievement, the purpose of this study was to explore African American Mothers’ and Daughters’ perceptions, values, and cultural views regarding maternal influences on daughters’ participation in physical activity and sport. The second purpose was to explore the value African American mothers and their adolescent daughters place on physical activity and sport participation. The third purpose was to gain a better understanding of the mothers’ and daughters’ social perceptions of what activities are culturally appropriate and or more appealing for themselves and their daughters and the role culture plays in their choice to participate or not in PA and sports. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with African American mother daughter dyads. The subjective task value associated with an activity is comprised of utility value, interest value, attainment value, and cost (Eccles & Harold, 1991). Each of the four types of value identified by Eccles’ theory was supported by the data in this study. It was also clear that daughters perceived that their mothers did have expectations when it came to their participation in sports and physical activities and that these expectations were effort based. It was also evident that daughters felt encouragement especially once engaged in a sport or physical activity. Mothers’ influence on theirs daughters’ participation in sport or physical activity Eccles’ comprehensive model regarding Parents’ general beliefs, Parents’ child specific beliefs, and Parents’ specific behaviors. Lastly, mothers’ perceptions on culturally appropriate/appealing activities for their daughters were categorized as white sports, black sports, and appropriate characteristics. In contrast, daughters’ perceptions were categorized as not appropriate sports, appropriate sports, and characteristics. DEDICATION I proudly dedicate this to: Monteal Moman For my entire life I have witnessed your encouragement, wittiness, caring, and love for God, but over the past 3 years I have been blessed to be able to eyewitness your strength, hear your prayers and wisdom firsthand. Your daily words of encouragement, and little wisdom lessons are priceless as you once told me... “Evie, no matter what I always want you to remember, someone always knows something you don’t. So, you can always learn from someone else, so don’t you ever look down on anyone for they always know something you don’t. So, know matter how many degrees you get, always be open to learn, even from a poor man on the street because he has had to do things in a way you would have never even thought of or considered. So, I want you to listen to every body including the poor.” Your daily words of wisdom that I will never forget, and would not be where I am today without them or you. I love and cherish you. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is with great pleasure that I thank my dissertation committee, Dr. Karin Pfeiffer, and Dr. Dan Gould, for supporting my interests, providing meaningful feedback and always being accessible. I would like to thank Dr. Marsha Carolan, for showing me the fun of qualitative research and always being reachable to answer a question. I offer special thanks to my chair and advisor Dr. Martha (Marty) Ewing, not only for supporting me through the dissertation process, but always having an open door policy for me, and constantly reminding me to have fun with my dissertation and never forget to have a life outside of work. Marty, I truly do thank you as you have made this process memorable and enjoyable. I have learned so much from you throughout the years I am honored to call you my mentor. To my colleague’s, aka team “Oreo,” Ramona Cox and Missy Wright, we have a bond and a sisterhood that is now unbreakable, I truly thank you both for the support and assistance from day one of this process. I offer my deepest gratitude to my family and friends who are just like family. I say thank you to the “Triangle,” Veronica Son and Felineece Foreman, words couldn’t express what you both mean to me and I can honestly say without you both this process would not have been as smooth as it has. Regina my mother you have always allowed me to be me and never once have you questioned a dream of mine. Grandpa, thank you for your unwavering belief, and support, as the pride you have in me, encourages me daily. My brother Brandon, thank you for being there when it counts. Special thanks to my group of friends, Brittany, Bryan, Rachel, Katie, Bri, Iman, Yo, and Jenney, thank you for your unwavering support throughout the years. Last but certainly not least; I have to give all the glory and honor to God, as I know without you I would not be where I am today or headed where I am going, thank you for your continued favor. Be Blessed. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Purpose of the Study............................................................................................... 6 Research Questions ................................................................................................ 7 Significance/ Rationale ........................................................................................... 7 Definitions of Terms............................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................................................................10 African American Females participation in sport and physical activity .............. 10 Socialization .................................................................................................... 15 Eccles’ Model ....................................................................................................... 17 Expanded Model “Comprehensive Model of Parental Influences on their children’s motivation and achievement ................................................................................. 26 Parent, family and neighborhood characteristics ............................................ 27 Cultural Considerations ................................................................................... 29 Child and Sibling Characteristics..................................................................... 31 General Beliefs and Behaviors of Parents ....................................................... 35 Parent Child- Specific Beliefs .......................................................................... 39 Parent-Specific Behaviors ................................................................................ 40 Child Outcomes ............................................................................................... 41 Summary............................................................................................................... 43 CHAPTER 3 METHODS. ...................................................................................................................... 45 Research Designs.................................................................................................. 45 Participants ........................................................................................................... 46 Procedures ............................................................................................................ 48 Instruments ........................................................................................................... 49 Demographics ................................................................................................ 49 Interview Guide ............................................................................................. 50 Trustworthiness .................................................................................................... 51 Data Analysis........................................................................................................ 52 Assumptions ......................................................................................................... 54 Significant of Study .............................................................................................. 55 CHAPTER 4 RESULTS ......................................................................................................................... 56 vi Participants Profile ................................................................................................... 57 Purpose 1: What values do African American daughters place on sport and physical activity? ..................................................................................................................... 62 Likes.................................................................................................................. 62 Benefits .............................................................................................................. 63 Perceived importance of physical activity ......................................................... 64 Purpose 1: Values mothers place on sport and PA .................................................... 65 Benefits .............................................................................................................. 66 Importance ......................................................................................................... 69 Purpose 1: Negative Outcomes of Participation in Sport and Physical Activity ...... 69 Resources ........................................................................................................... 70 Time................................................................................................................... 71 Perceived negative feedback .............................................................................. 72 Race ................................................................................................................... 73 Daughter’s Negative outcomes .......................................................................... 73 Resources ........................................................................................................... 73 Negative feedback.............................................................................................. 74 Discouraging factors .......................................................................................... 74 Injuries ............................................................................................................... 75 Purpose 2: Daughters’ perceived parental influence (support/negative, encouragement/discouragement) for sport and/or physical activity participation .... 76 Not quit .............................................................................................................. 76 Expectations ...................................................................................................... 77 Encouragement .................................................................................................. 79 Purpose 3: Negative Outcomes of Participation in Sport and Physical Activity ..... 80 Gender Differences ............................................................................................ 81 Mothers Expectations ........................................................................................ 83 Mother’s Role .................................................................................................... 84 Purpose 4: Sport/Physical Activities Considered to be Culturally Appropriate/Appealing by Mothers and Daughters......................................................................................... 86 Mothers Perceptions of Culturally Appropriate Activities ........................................ 83 Influence of stereotypes ..................................................................................... 87 Characteristics ................................................................................................... 88 Daughters’ perceptions on appealing activities ......................................................... 89 Chapter Summary ...................................................................................................... 91 CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 93 Types of value mothers and daughters place on sport and physical activity........ 93 Interest value .................................................................................................... 94 Attainment Value ............................................................................................. 95 Utility Value..................................................................................................... 96 Perceived Cost ................................................................................................. 98 Daughters’ perceived parental influence ............................................................ 104 Mothers influence on their daughters’ participation in sport and/or physical activity participation ....................................................................................................... 106 vii Gender differences ........................................................................................ 107 Mothers expectations .................................................................................... 108 Mothers role .................................................................................................. 109 Perceptions of culturally appealing sports/activities ............................................... 110 Future Research and Implications ........................................................................... 113 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................ 116 Appendix A Informed Consent ........................................................................... 117 Appendix B Assent Form ................................................................................... 119 Appendix C Parents Demographic Survey ......................................................... 120 Appendix D IPAQ Questionnaire ....................................................................... 121 Appendix E Racial Pride Scale ........................................................................... 127 Appendix F Childs Demographic Survey ........................................................... 128 Appendix G Mothers Interview Guide ............................................................... 131 Appendix H Daughters Interview Guide ............................................................ 133 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 135 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 IPAQ Description ................................................................................................ 49 Table 2 Descriptive of Mother-Daughter Dyads .............................................................. 57 Table 3 Summary of each dyad Descriptive ..................................................................... 59 Table 4 Daughters Values of Physical Activity and Sport ............................................... 62 Table 5 Mothers Values .....................................................................................................65 Table 6 Negative Outcomes .............................................................................................. 70 Table 7 Daughters perceived parental influence ............................................................... 76 Table 8 Gender Differences .............................................................................................. 81 Table 9 Cultural Appropriate/Appealing Activities for Mothers and Daughters ............. 86 Table 10 Findings summarized ....................................................................................... 135 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Eccels expectancy value model ............................................................................4 Figure 2. Comprehensive Model of Parental Influences .................................................. 25 Figure 3. Comprehensive Model with findings .............................................................. 136 x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Purpose of the Study Obesity is the most consequential physical threat to the health of African American women (Hill, 2009). The Office of Minority Health (2009) reported that about four out of five (80%) African American women are overweight or obese compared to 58% of Non-Hispanic White women. Minority women are particularly at risk for chronic diseases usually resulting from an imbalance between physical activity and caloric intake (Henderson, 2011). Some of the benefits of engaging in regular physical activity include reducing the risk associated with obesity and cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, and type II diabetes. The psychological benefits of physical activity include mood regulation, lower levels of depression and anxiety (ISSP, 2003), positive changes in self-perception, self-confidence, well-being, and increase in self-efficacy (ISSP, 2003) among others. The U.S Department of Health and Human Services, (2008) recommended that adults participate in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week. Adherence to these guidelines is rare, especially in the African American community. According to the 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System BRFSS, only 46.4% of African Americans were meeting the recommendation (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). African American women are not the only population with disturbing rates of physical inactivity. African American girls have disturbing rates as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC cited in Eaton et al., 2012), only 31.9% of African American girls met current guidelines for being physically active at least 60 minutes per day on 5 or more days, compared to 33% of Hispanic girls and 42.6% of Caucasian girls. These 1 phenomena are explainable particularly when examining participation patterns in sport, a primary means of physical activity during adolescence (Sirard, Pfeiffer, & Pate, 2006). While physical activity declines from 6 th grades to 8 th grades among all girls, the rate of decline tends to be larger among African American girls (Whitt-Glover, et al., 2009). According to Girls Inc, young white women were more likely to participate in sports, and Black women were the least likely to meet current physical activity recommendations. The importance of physical activity extends beyond future health and disease avoidance outcomes for adolescents. Involvement in physical activity and sport is also positively related to children’s social and psychological development. Positive peer relationships and enhanced selfconcepts have been attributed to the social interaction that comes through participation in sports (Weiss & Duncan, 1992). Although the amount of research focusing on physical activity in African American females has increased over time, it has mainly focused on identifying barriers and correlates to physical activity. Only recently have researchers begun to explore interventions and strategies that may encourage physical activity (Henderson, 2011). Over the past decade research among African American females in physical activity and sport participation has focused on enablers and constraints (Henderson, 2011). Specifically, this research has found that the African American female faces several challenges to achieving an active lifestyle, notably structural barriers related to racism, sexism, and classism. Important factors identified as playing a role in participation in physical activity and sport from previous studies of African American women include the social and physical environment, care giving/family responsibility, hair type, time, cost, enjoyment, and embarrassment (Carter-Nolan, Adams-Campbell, & Williams, 1996; Fleury & Lee, 2006). Personal factors such as perceived benefits of physical activities (Flintoff & 2 Scranton, 2001), attraction to and perceived competence in physical activities (Crocker, Eklund, & Kowalski, 2000; Welk, Wood, & Morss, 2003), ethnic heritage (Gordon-Larsen et al., 2000), socioeconomic status (Humbert et al., 2006), and level of acculturation (Coakley, 2001) have also been found to play a role in African American women’s physical activity levels. Barriers to physical activity for African American adolescents come in the form of poor schools and lack of school resources, low socioeconomic status, unsafe neighborhoods, and lack of access to recreational facilities (Alleyne & LaPoint, 2004; Goldsmith, 2003). Though these challenges exist, perhaps the most striking barrier facing African American females is their own culture. The African American culture is generally one with a greater social tolerance for overweight and obesity than other cultures (Alleyne & LaPoint, 2004), and as African American girls become older, their perceptions of ideal body size may develop to be more equivalent with the African American popular culture (Kimm et al., 2002). Lastly, African Americans may have different values towards physical activity and the desire to reject “white identity” (Corbett & Calloway, 2006). This could indicate that some physical activity and sport choices may be distinct to the African American culture and possibly some recognized as more culturally appropriate or preferred. One approach to understanding the influence of the African American culture on adolescent girls’ decisions to begin and continue participating in physical activity and sport would be to investigate the socialization process whereby individuals learn skills, traits, values, attitudes, norms, and knowledge associated with the performance of present or anticipated social roles (McPherson & Brown, 1988, p.267), particularly of the mother. Studies have revealed that parents who value an activity are more likely to seek it out for their children (Eccles & Harrold, 1991) and parents who are more physically active have more physically active children 3 (Freedson & Evenson, 1991; Gottlieb & Chen, 1985; Moore et al., 1991). Parents socialize their children into certain achievement domains as they serve as providers, role models and interpreters of those experiences (Eccles & Harold, 1991). One way to explore the socialization into sport process is Eccles’ expectancy-value model of activity choice (Figure 1), which proposes that parental belief systems contribute to the child’s activity motivation. In the African American family mothers are often the most influential parent voice and, hence, will be the focus of this study. The model proposes that children’s’ achievement behaviors (seen in the bubble on the right) such as, decisions to participate, amount of effort exerted, persistence, and the level of performance in an achievement domain appear to be influenced by two central determinants, (in the bubbles to the left of achievement behaviors) namely, the subjective task value attached to the domain and the expectations of success in that particular domain. Figure 1. Eccles’ expectancy-value model of activity choice Permission was granted to use figure 1 4 These two determinants are influenced by a variety of social, cognitive, and affective factors as can be seen in the bubbles on the left side of the model. Gender roles, activity socializers, and past experiences all cooperate to influence, as seen in the center bubbles, the individual’s perceptions, interpretations, goals, and self-schema. It is these perceptions and affect that determine one’s expectations of success and subjective task value. The expectancy-value approach is unique as other explanations focus on traditional role modeling while Eccles’ expectancy-value model is driven by the parental belief system and the influence, it has on the child. It should be noted that Eccles and Harold (1991) investigated the applicability of the expectancy-value model in a sport domain and found support for the importance of parents on their children’s expectations of success. Eccles’ expectancy-value model proposes that the parent’s belief system contributes to the child’s activity motivation (Eccles et al., 1984). Motivation-related cognitions are shaped through interactions with parents. In particular, parents are presumed to influence children's judgments by communicating their own beliefs about the child's likelihood of success and the relative value of the various achievement areas. Much of the work using Eccles’ model has focused on Caucasian families and youth and remains a limitation of past research. Within the African American family mothers tend to be the most influential with the family network (Koehly, 2003), which may contribute to different values and expectations in sport and physical activity among boys and girls. Support has been provided for Eccles’ theory pertaining to the perceived parental gender-related expectation and value characteristics, as they contribute to explaining different attitudes toward sport among boys and girls (Eccles & Harold, 1991). Eccles and Harold reported that a child’s perceptions of the domain specific expectations and values maintained by their parents were related to the gender of 5 the child. Greendorfer (1979) has explored parents’ roles in socializing children into physical activity and sport. Greendorfer and Ewing (1981) explored whether race and gender differences occurred in children’s socialization into sport. Findings showed that there were some race differences in socialization with Black children being more influenced by situational or contextual variables and White children being more influenced by specific agents of socialization. Horn and colleagues (Horn & Hasbrook, 1986; Horn & Weiss, 1991) found that parents were the most important source of information for children under the age of 11 in developing competency beliefs (Horn & Hasbrook, 1986: 1987; Horn & Weiss, 1991). Additionally, parents’ influence is important in physical activity and sport socialization of children (Bauer, Nelson, Boutelle, & Neumark-Sztainer (2008); Madsen Yang, Telama, & Laakso (1996);, McCulloch, & Crawford (2009). To date, however, research has not fully examined how parents’ perceptions, values, or cultural and community views influence and impact physical activity and sport participation of African American female adolescents. The distinctiveness of the African American mother-daughter relationships is a subject that has captivated both novelists and poets (Costigan, Cauce, Etchison, 2007), as within African American families daughters describe mother-daughter relationships as the closest and most supportive (Cauce, Hiraga, Graves, & Gonzales, 1996). The African American mother-daughter relationship may prove to be an important component in addressing health risk behaviors, such as sedentary behavior, in adolescent girls as the role of mother-daughter relations in the maintenance of healthy lifestyles may be the key to improving PA levels of adolescent girls (Thompson & Nichols, 2010). Purpose of the Study 6 Using Eccles comprehensive model of parental influences on their children’s motivation and achievement, the purpose of this study was to explore African American mothers’ and daughters’ perceptions, values, and cultural views regarding maternal influences on daughters’ participation in physical activity and sport. The second purpose wass to explore the value African American mothers and their adolescent daughters place on physical activity and sport participation. The third purpose wass to gain a better understanding of the mothers’ and daughters’ social perceptions of what activities are culturally appropriate and/or appealing for themselves and their daughters and the role culture plays in their choice to participate or not in PA and sports. Research Questions 1. What values do African American mothers and daughters place on sport and physical activity? A. What are the perceived benefits and negative outcomes of sport and physical activity participation? 2. What are the daughters’ perceived parental influence (support/negative, encouragement/ discouragement) for sport and/or physical activity participation? 3. What are the mothers’ perceived influences on their daughters’ participation in sport and/or physical activity participation? 4. Are certain sports/activities considered by African American mothers/daughters to be more culturally appropriate/appealing than others? A. Are there any cultural stigmas, beliefs, or perceptions that may influence mothers or their daughter’s participation in physical or sporting activities? 7 B. Are there any cultural characteristics that impact one’s perception, value, and/or participation in physical activities or any particular sport? Significance/rationale of the Study Empirical evidence has shown that sport and physical activity participation has a plethora of psychological, social, and physiological benefits for those of all ages. We have little information regarding the socialization into physical activity of African American adolescents. It is not fully understood what role cultural stigmas, beliefs, and or stereotypes have on physical activity and sport participation in the African American community. To date, there has been a limited amount of information on the recommendations to implementing programs that provide African American females with culturally appropriate and/or appealing activities, in order to increase participation. Because parents are the main socializers influencing their child’s sport involvement (Greendorfer, Lewko, & Rosengren, 1996), it is important to understand the value parents place on common activities, as well as to gain insight into what parents perceive as culturally-appropriate activities for not only themselves but their daughters. Lastly, with past research noting that typically fathers been known to be the most important socialization influence for both girls and boys sport involvement (Greendorfer, Lewko, & Rosengren, 1996), it should be noted that 92% of African Americans live in single mother households (Casper & Fields, 2000). Along with the low physical activity rates of African American adolescents, and the known bond African American mothers share with their daughters, it is not only important but imperative to examine how African American mothers’ perceptions, values, or cultural and community views sway their daughters’ socialization into physical activity and sports. Better understanding of African American mothers’ and daughters’ perspectives may provide parents, educators, program planners, and administrators of sport, 8 physical education, and physical activity (PA) programs the ability to identify factors that contribute to or inhibit PA and sport participation among African American females. Definition of Terms The following terms utilized in this study are defined for clarification: 1. Cultural Identity: A component of a person’s social identity based, in part, on knowledge of ethnic group membership, feelings associated with that membership, and attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral norms shared among persons from the same ethnic background (Beech et al., 2004). 2. African American Culturally Appropriate Activities: A distinctive set of “authentic” or acceptable African American leisure activities, suggesting that strongly embedded African American sub- cultural traditions or values have formed, as a result of strongly embedded African American sub-cultural traditions or values (Philipp, 1999) 3. Physical activity: Any bodily movement produced by the skeletal muscle that results in energy expenditure. Physical activity is typically categorized as, occupational, sports, conditioning, leisure-time, or household activities (Caspersen, Powell, & Christenson, 1985). 4. Racial pride: Racial pride, a prevalent construct among African Americans, includes interest or involvement in traditional racial practices and holding positive racial attitudes (Kreuter et al., 2002; Lukwago et al., 2001; Nobles, 1991). 5. Socialization: the process whereby individuals learn skills, traits, values, attitudes, norms, and knowledge associated with the performance of present or anticipated social roles (McPherson & Brown, 1988, p.267). 9 CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE This chapter is designed to examine past research related to both African Americans’ exercise and sport participation and parental influence on sport and physical activity of their children. This review of the literature is presented in the following sections: (a) African American females, participation in sport and physical activity, (b) socialization, (c) and an indepth review of Eccles model which covers an array of topics on parental influence on sport and physical activity participation. Adolescent African American Females’ Participation in Sport and Physical Activity Participation in extracurricular activities such as music, drama, sports, and government, results in positive psychological development. For adolescents, these activities provide avenues for demonstrating competence, experiencing achievement, developing identities, and forming positive relationships with peers and adults (Eccles & Barber, 1999). Participation in physical activity and/or sport programs is essential to the holistic development of children and adolescents. Studies show that the adolescent years are fundamental in the development of lifelong physical activity (Bush, Leenders, & O’Sullivan, 2004) and that involvement in sport programs during the adolescent years may increase the likelihood of engaging in a high level of physical activity in adulthood (Tammelin, Nayha, Hills, & Jarvelin, 2003). Physical activity participation provides various, well-documented physiological and psychological benefits for all. Of particular interest is the reduction in the health risks associated with obesity and risk factors for cardiovascular disease, reduction of type II diabetes, reduction of certain types of cancers (Bush et al., 2004; CDC, 2010; Healthy People, 2010) Fahlman, Hall, & Lock, 2006), motor skill development, reduction in anxiety and depression, improvements in self-concept, self-esteem, body esteem, and alertness, among others (CDC, 2010; ISSP, 2003). 10 All of these benefits of physical activity are imperative to achieving a high quality of life, and physical activity behavior should be adopted at an early age (Tammelin et al., 2003). In spite of these well-documented benefits, many Americans do not engage in regular physical activity, and adolescents are also following this trend. Fahlem, Hall, and Locke (2006) compared the physical activity levels, fitness, and barriers to exercise, based on ethnicity or socioeconomic status by using a cross sectional sample of African Americans, Hispanics, and white female high school students. Participants (n=1314) completed a 15-item survey that assessed activity levels and barriers to exercise. Physical fitness testing was conducted to test aerobic capacity, body composition, and height and weight. Fahlmen et al. (2006) found that African American girls have more perceived barriers to physical activity than Caucasian girls, and were also less physically active. The main limitations to this study resulted from selfreported data and participants may have answered in a socially desirable manner. Within the African American population, female adolescents are not the only age group with high inactivity rates. Despite the important role that physical activity plays in reducing morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular and other leading chronic diseases, most African American adult women are not regularly active according to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC). For instance, according to the 2011 BRFSS only 46.4% of African Americans were meeting the ACSM daily recommendations (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). In the 21st century, the amount of research regarding African American women and physical activity has increased to explore and identify patterns, barriers, and correlates to physical activity among African American women (Henderson, 2011). It should be noted that although African Americans experience similar barriers and benefits to exercise as other racial/ethnic groups in the United States, their lower participation 11 rates support the need for continued research. Although not regularly explicitly studied in relation to exercise there are several unique barriers that African Americans may face with respect to participation in physical activity. For example, Black girls do not view weight as a health problem (Alleyene & LaPoint, 2004: Ciccomascolo & Grossi, 2008). One analysis of obesity among Black adolescent girls revealed that Black girls have a more tolerant attitude toward obesity, referring to themselves in terms such as phat, big boned, healthy, thick, and brick house, and this physique is “marketed, standardized, institutionalized, and celebrated” (Alleyene & LaPoint, 2004, pg 348). Differences in the body weights of Black females start in childhood, mainly due to differences in health behaviors, but it is also well known that having a “big body” is also tied to the social construction of African American womanhood (Hill, 2009). Boyington, Carter-Edwards, Piehl, Hutson, Langdon, and McManus (2008) interviewed 12-18 year old girls from North Carolina who were predominantly overweight and from low-income families. The interviews were structured to reveal information about the girls’ perceptions and attitudes toward variables related to excess weight. Findings revealed that Black adolescent girls both tolerated and preferred heavier body weight and were more satisfied with a large body size. The authors noted that in the African American community, a larger body size can be a social asset and not a hindrance, and that the data consistently showed that large breasts and buttocks were perceived as attributes of physical attractiveness, and when those were lacking it resulted in women being dissatisfied (Boyington et al., 2008). Participants often referred to themselves as “big” rather than “fat,” and did not perceive exercise as a necessity. Similar to the Boyington et al. (2008) study, other literature revealed that some racial groups use selective terminology to describe overweight or obesity. For example, Dietz (2001) 12 conducted 12 focus groups with teenage youth, who were African Americans, Mexican Americans, and white adolescents. Participants were asked to describe the term “overweight.” Participants described overweight as behaviors such as eating a lot of sugary foods or eating too much. Those who knew the term obesity applied it to people who weighed in the 300-700 pound range. Lastly, these teenagers described exercise as being for people who wanted to lose weight or get “firmed up.” Although this attitude indicates a higher self-image, the celebration of obesity seems to be a double-edged sword given its serious health repercussions. This phenomenon was found not only in the younger African American population but among African American adult women as well. In the African American community, being “heavy” and “big bodied” is associated with being resilient, nourished, and having the ability to survive anything (Beauboeuf-LaFontant, 2003). Black women are more satisfied with their bodies in comparison to other cultures (Lovejoy, 2001) and African American men typically prefer big women (Hill, 2009). It is important to note that several studies reveal that Black women often explain and adjust their body sizes to meet the approval of Black men in their lives (Allan, Mayo, & Michel, 1993; Ofosu, LaFreniere, & Senn, 1998; Thomas, 1989; WalcottMcQuigg et al., 1995). In Black communities, heavier bodies represent wealth, health, power, and a symbol of beauty (Brown & Kroner, 1987; Flynn & Fitzgibbon, 1998). The African American female image is known to focus on the notions of strength, motherhood, and big bodies, all of which portray the prominent cultural values of African American women (Hill, 2009). Women’s cultural ideals for beauty may be another factor that places them at greater risk for obesity (Rand, 1990; Walden et al., 1990) and a lack of physical activity. How women see their bodies (perceptual body image) and feel about their bodies (attitudinal body image) in the context of 13 their cultural values may influence what they do with their bodies (Flynn & Fitzgibbon, 1998; Rucker & Cash, 1992). In the case of African American women, this often translates into a lack of participation in physical activity and exercise. The literature seems to reveal some parallels between the perspectives and behaviors of adolescent and adult African American women. These parallels could be due to the relationship and bond among African Americans mothers and their daughter. The distinctiveness of the African American mother-daughter relationship has captivated many (Costigan, Cauce. & Etchison, 2007). In order to understand the relationship, it is essential to first appreciate the sociocultural niche of African American mothers and daughters (Cauce et al., 1996). Mothers in the African American community are considered the family’s primary educator, passing family tradition, values, and beliefs to the next generations. In a study conducted with 13-year-old African American girls and their mothers investigating mother daughter interactions using videotapes (of the mother-daughter interaction) and self-report questionnaires, daughters described the mother-daughter relationship as the closest and most supportive in early adolescence when compared to fathers or peers (Cauce et al., 1996). Mothers are known to encourage daughters to work hard, show tenacity, self-reliance, and resistance to conformity (Costigan et al., 2007). African American mothers are known to focus on making sure their daughters are prepared to be self-supporting and independent (Costigan et al., 2007). As one African American mother noted in Cauce et al., (1996) study noted, “you just can’t count on no man taking care of you. You need to be ready to do for yourself.” Although African American mothers tend to have different parenting styles, there seems to be a common theme when raising their daughters, highlighting spirituality/religion, education, family ties, and personal independence (DeCosta-Willis, 2001). Given the close 14 relationships that African American mothers often have with their daughters, one can infer that mother-daughter parallels also exist and may contribute further to the perceptions and behaviors of physical activity and sport. Socialization. Socialization is defined as “the process whereby individuals learn skills, traits, values, attitudes, norms and knowledge associated with the performance of present or anticipated social roles” (McPherson & Brown, 1988, pg 267). Socialization is considered a multidimensional process that includes the social, psychological, and physical outcomes of involvement in various experiences. As defined by researchers (Brustad, 1992; Greendorfer, 1992; McPherson & Brown, 1988), the process of socialization related to physical activity and sport participation contains three components: (1) socialization into sport; (2) socialization through sport; and (3) socialization out of sport. Socialization into physical activity and sport relates to the social and psychological influences that contribute to an individual’s initial attraction to and involvement in the physical domain. Socialization through physical activity and sport refers to the beliefs and behaviors obtained as a result of actual physical participation pursuits and are defined by the outcome from the participation. Lastly, socialization out of sport emphasizes the influence within the environment of the actual physical activity or sport that are related to an individual ceasing his/her participation. (Greendorfer, 1992: McPherson & Brown, 1988). Parents represent central socializing influences in the lives of most children and adolescents. The majority of research on the roles of parental influence in sport involvement has focused on the initial involvement and continued participation of their child (Greendorfer et al., 1996). Early research on sport socialization focused on how parents contribute to children’s sporting experiences in the actual environment. Studies revealed that parental physical activity 15 levels are positively related to their children’s physical activity participation levels. In general, parents who are more physically active have more physically active children (Freedson & Evenson, 1991; Gottlieb & Chen, 1985; Moore et al., 1993). Existing research has also shown that parents can influence their child’s motivation, perceived competence, and enjoyment of sports (Brustad, Babkes, & Smith, 2001). Typically, found that children look to parents for information regarding judgments on ability and decisions about their future participatory behavior (Weiss & FerrerCaja, 2002). Thus, parents play a pivotal role in the development of their child’s perceived competence, intrinsic motivation, and emotional development. Parental influences are conveyed through modeling and reinforcement (Brustad, 1988; Swain & Harwood, 1996; Yusuff, 1991). Additionally, children’s perceptions of their parents’ level of interest in their sport are predictive of children’s initial and sustained involvement (Greendorfer et al., 1996). Not only is their evidence supporting parents influencing sport participation but also evidence in studies assessing the role of the family in health promotion areas. Additionally, researchers have explored the positive relationship between parents and their adolescent children and the significant role parents play in young people’s health outcomes (Guerrero & Afifi, 1995; Huang, 1999). A growing number of studies have shown the feasibility of using the parent–child relationship as a vehicle for reducing, sexual risk taking (Huang, 1999; Hutchinson, Jemmont, Braverman, & Fong, 2003), smoking (Shakib et al., 2003), substance abuse (Wood, Read, Mitchell, & Brand, 2004), and poor nutrition (Luepker et al., 1996) Given the known low levels of physical activity participation of African Americans combined with the bond that is often exhibited between mothers and daughters in the Black community, along with 92% of African American single family households being lead by 16 mothers (Casper & Fields, 2000), it seems appropriate to examine the socialization process by which African American mothers influence daughters in the participation of physical activity and sport. Eccles’ Model The theoretical model that is deemed most relevant and appropriate as a framework for this study is Eccles’ (1983) Expectancy-Value Theory. This model has been identified as acceptable for studying the process of parental socialization influences upon children’s physical activity and sport involvement (Eccles & Harold, 1991). Eccles’ model (1983) is an expectancyvalue model of socialization in which parental expectations about their child’s likelihood for success in a given achievement area combined with their beliefs about the value of success in that particular domain are hypothesized to shape their socialization practices (Eccles et al., 1983; Eccles & Harold, 1991). Following the perspectives from the expectancy-value model, parents hold expectations concerning their children’s abilities in particular achievement areas. An expectation is defined as an individual’s perceived likelihood of success in an achievement activity. This construct is similar to perceived competence in that it is not necessarily an individual’s ability that influences achievement choice or motivation (Eccles et al., 1983). The decisions to participate, amount of effort exerted, persistence, and the level of performance in an achievement domain appear to be influenced by two central determinants: (1) the subjective task value attached to the domain and (2) the expectations of success in that particular domain (Eccles & Harold, 1991). These two determinants are influenced by a variety of social, cognitive, and affective factors (Eccles & Harold, 1991). Gender roles, cultural and activity stereotypes, socializers’ beliefs, behaviors, and past achievement experiences all cooperate to influence the individual’s perceptions, 17 interpretations, goals, self-schema, and affect. It is these perceptions and affect that determine one’s expectations of success and subjective task value, which determine the achievement behavior (Eccles & Harold, 1991). For this study, persistence in physical activity and sport (or the lack thereof) is the achievement behavior of interest. Task values are defined as “the degree to which a task is able to fulfill an individual’s needs, facilitate their attainment of a goal, or affirm personal values attached to engaging in a particular task” (Eccles & Harold, 1991, pg. 8). The model suggests that the three components of value are: (1) attainment value, or the importance of doing well on a task; (2) intrinsic value, or the inherent enjoyment experienced from engaging in a task; and (3) utility value, or the importance of attaining a future goal through participation in a task (Eccles et al., 1983). Beliefs about the values associated with tasks in various achievement domains can also be conceptualized according to the perceived importance that parents attach to those tasks. For instance, based on value placed on achievement in a given domain, a parent may communicate that success in athletics is more important than achievement in school, making parents more likely to give more encouragement and opportunities for children to partake in sports. Critical mediating factors for an individual’s performance expectancies are (a) selfconcept of ability; (b) perceptions of task difficulty; (c) interpretations of previous experiences and performances; and (d) the beliefs and behaviors of significant socializers, particularly of parents (Eccles et al., 1982). As suggested by Eccles and colleagues (1983), parents provide critical information about their child’s expectancy for success in a domain through the provisions of opportunities and encouragement, which reflect their impressions about their child’s potential. A positive mother-daughter relationship perceived by the daughter has been associated with higher academic performance and increased self-esteem (Gross & McCallum, 2000). Evidence 18 distinct to African American adolescents validates the significance of the mother–daughter relationship in the context of African American culture and socialization techniques for positive emotional and behavioral health (Biderman, Nicohls, & Duram, 2010). Thomas and King (2007) reported positive mother-daughter relationships coupled with gendered racial socialization messages from mothers to daughters were associated with positive self-esteem among African American adolescent girls. In addition Turnage (2004) established that among adolescent African American girls, attachment to their mothers and feelings of commitment to African American identity was associated with high global self-esteem. With 92% of all African American children living in single-mother households (Casper & Fields, 2000), it would be beneficial to explore the influence that mothers have on their daughters’ socialization into sport. The expectations and values maintained by parents are hypothesized to guide the domainspecific socialization of children and contribute to the support, opportunities, and encouragement youth receive for participating in selected activities such as physical activity, academics, art, and music. This model suggested that children’s own cognitions (expectations and values) related to choosing an activity are shaped through ongoing parent interactions. With messages communicated by parents in reference to the expectation or value of achievement in different domains, children come to adopt their own beliefs about the probability of success and the significance of involvement in different domains. The expectancy-value approach is unique in that unlike many traditional socialization explanations that suggest that the role modeling of behaviors are key components in children’s adoption of behaviors, the central focus of Eccles’ model is on the influence that the parental belief system has on the children’s activity choice motivation (Eccles, 1984; Brustad, 1992). As the main socializers during childhood, parents contribute to the beliefs children formulate about 19 their own competencies through feedback and opportunities provided to them to excel in certain domains. The opportunities a parent provides are based on their expectations and values about various activities. As parents provide activities, youth learn what is valued and what is expected in specific activities. For instance, if a parent never gives his/her child the opportunity to play in an organized sport, but rather provides opportunities for the child to work, messages about the relative value and expectations in working and sport within the family are established. Suggesting that if children are solely provided with specific opportunities such as working or music lessons rather than playing an organized sport, one’s subsequent values and expectations about achievement in that activity are shaped in agreement within the selected activity or experiences. For instance, anecdotal evidence suggests that in the African American family it is often expected that the eldest daughter come home right after school, cares for the younger children, and supervises the household until mom comes home. These responsibilities suggest that childcare and household chores are more important than sport participation after school. Another example that may be unique to African American mothers and daughters could be the value of hair. I know from personal experience and from being a camp director that when African American girls have just gotten their hair done, they were not to go swimming or even get near the water. This admonition suggests to the child that hair is valued more than engaging in physical activity where you could sweat or get your hair wet. Additionally, children’s beliefs are linked to their perception of the parent’s response to previous successes or failures on the task and appraisals of the value. For instance, if a parent reacts harshly to a poor game performance but does not react harshly to a bad English or math test score, the different responses provide a child with critical information about the importance 20 of success in the various domains. This perspective suggests that the decisions to participate and remain involved in an activity are influenced by the child’s expectations for success and the values attached to the activity. Building on results found in the academic domain, Eccles and Harold (1991) investigated the applicability of the expectancy-value model in a sport domain. Eccles and Harold conducted two longitudinal studies. The first study consisted of an examination of 3,000 sixth grade boys and girls (a predominately white sample) in a 2- year longitudinal study focusing on the transition from sixth grade to seventh grade. Students completed a 7-point Likert-type questionnaire to assess their competence beliefs in language arts, math, and sport. The beliefs evaluated were perceived task value, self-concept of ability, and free time involvement in each domain. Results revealed that boys rated themselves as more competent in mathematics and sport than girls did, whereas girls rated themselves as more competent in language arts than boys did. Additionally, boys rated sports as being more enjoyable, important, and useful than the girls did. Conversely, girls rated language arts as being more enjoyable, important, and useful than the boys. This analysis supported Eccles and Harold’s (1991) hypothesis that gender differences in time spent in sport is determined by differences in value attached to sport and self-concept of ability, as results indicated that the time adolescents spent in sports was significantly related to their own reported self-concept of ability, gender stereotypical expectancies, and the value they attached to sport. A second study focused on when and how differences in the relationships among expectations, values, and children’s behavioral achievement choices begin to emerge (Eccles & Harolds, 1991). This second study was conducted during four sequential years. Children (n=875) from a predominately white sample representing four school districts completed questionnaires 21 each year for three years. During the first year of the study, the children completed the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency as well as a battery of cognitive measurements. In each of the following years, the children completed questionnaires similar to those in the previously mentioned study with adolescents rating usefulness and enjoyment of mathematics, reading, and sport. Additionally, children were asked how good they were at sports in general, how good they were at tumbling, and at throwing a ball. Lastly, they were asked how important they thought it was to their parents for them to do well in each domain, and whether ability in each domain was more important for boys or girls. All of the questions were asked using a 7point Likert-type scale. Results revealed that Eccles et al.’s (1983) expectancy-value model was applicable to the sport domain, as findings showed that by first grade, girls felt they possessed less ability than boys in both math and sport domains. Girls also rated themselves as less competent in the sport domain, whereas boys rated themselves as most competent in the same domain. Also, girls rated themselves better in tumbling, and boys rated themselves better in throwing. Additionally, teachers rated boys as being more able in sport, but rated boys and girls similarly in math and reading. Eccles and Harold (1991) concluded that gender differences emerge at an early age, which can be due to gender-role stereotyping and social influence exerted by adults. Brustad (1993) began to expand Eccles’ expectancy-value model by examining a conceptual model that linked parental physical activity levels, parental socialization practices, and children’s self-perceptions with their perceived competence and attraction to physical activity. Results showed that the amount of encouragement given by a parent to the child to be physically active was positively related to the parents’ self-reported physical activity. Children 22 who rated themselves as having higher perceived competence had parents who provided more encouragement. Overall, these findings were consistent with Eccles’ expectancy value model. In 1996, Brustad extended his research using a modified expectancy value model to examine parental socialization and gender influences on urban schoolchildren’s attraction to physical activity and perceptions of athletic competence, which represented the subjective value construct in the Eccles’ model. Participants completed the Children’s Attraction to Physical Activity (CAPA) scale, a modified version of the Perceived Physical Competence Scale for Children, and a parental socialization scale in order to examine the relationships between parental-socialization processes and children’s subjective task value. The parental socialization scale assessed parental encouragement, perceived parental enjoyment, and parental rolemodeling behavior. Brustad’s (1996) analysis revealed that perceived parental enjoyment of physical activity was strongly related to girls’ attraction to physical activity and their perceived competence. These findings are consistent with previous research (Brustad, 1993), and suggest that parental influence upon youth attraction to physical activity is similar across various socioeconomic levels. Lastly, Brustad’s findings that parental enjoyment, a role-modeling process through which parents express their own attraction to physical activity, supports Eccles’ theory that parental beliefs toward physical activity may influence children’s perceptions of ability and ultimately subjective task value. Expanded Model “Comprehensive Model of parental influences” Eccles, Wigfield, and Schiefele’s (1998) review on motivational theories further elaborated on the expectancy-value model in order to present a comprehensive model of “parental influence on children’s motivation and achievement” (Figure 2). Parent beliefs are proven to be important sources of children’s perceived competence, attraction to physical 23 activity and sport, and physical activity and sport behavior. Eccles et al.’s (1998) comprehensive model of parental influence on children’s motivation and achievement demonstrates the ways in which parent, family, neighborhood characteristics, child and sibling characteristics, and the parents’ general and child- specific beliefs and behaviors all interact to influence the child’s outcomes (i.e., self-perceptions, values, and activity choice). Parents communicated their attitudes and beliefs about sport and physical activity through encouragement, expression of enjoyment, and by providing opportunities to engage in sport and physical activity. Given the knowledge on parental influence it seems appropriate to explore the role mothers play in physical activity behavior and the sport/PA socialization process through Eccles’ model of parental influences on their children’s motivational achievement. In the parental influence on children’s motivation and achievement model (Eccles et al.’s 1998), many components interact with one another to ultimately determine child outcomes. Figure 2 shows the comprehensive model; the rest of this chapter examines each component and describes literature related to each component. 24 Figure 2. Comprehensive Model of Parental Influences 25 Parent, Family and Neighborhood Characteristics. Sociological researchers have documented the importance of factors such as, family size, family structure, parents’ financial resources, education, occupation and community characteristics in shaping children’s motivation and achievement (Beyerer, 1995; Coleman et al., 1996; Eccles et al., 1996; Lacosa 1984; Sewell & Hauser, 1980). The first component of Eccles’ model of parental influences on their children’s motivation and achievement is parent, family, and neighborhood characteristics. This includes traits such as education, marital status, socioeconomic status, neighborhood risks and resources, ethnicity, and culture. Eccles and colleagues (1998) identified five family demographic characteristics that may affect children’s motivation both directly and indirectly. Below is a brief explanation on each of the five ways as outlined by Eccles and colleagues (1998) that family demographics could affect a child’s’ motivation. Eccles, Wigfield and Schiefele, (1998) (pp. 1053-5) suggested the following ways parents influence their children’s motivation. 1. Through children’s association with both parent beliefs and practices and the opportunities in the child’s environment. For example parents with higher education are more likely to believe that involvement in their children’s education and intellectual development is important (DeBaryshe et al., 1993; Schneider & Coleman, 1993) ,so they may have more intellectually stimulating materials in the home. 2. Through the competing demands children place on parents’ time and energy. For example, the negative association of single-parent status, time spent at work, and having a large family on children’s school achievement, might be related to the fact that these factors reduce the time and energy parents have for engaging their children in activities (Schneider & Coleman 1993). Also there is evidence that shows how much harder it is to 26 do a good job of parenting if one lives in a high-risk neighborhood or if one is financially stressed (Elder, Eccles, Ardelt, & Lord, 1995; Frustenberg, 1993; McLoyd, 1990). 3. Demographic characteristics can also affect parents’ perceptions of, and expectations for, their children (e.g., family income or level of education). For example, divorced parents have lower expectations for their children’s acedemic success and long-term educational prospects (Alexander & Entwise, 1998) As Fordham and Ogbu (1986) have noted that if parents believe that there are limited opportunities for their children to obtain conventional forms of success, they are likely to shift their socialization efforts towards other goals and interests. 4. Family demographic characteristics are often associated with things like parents’ jobs, leisure activities, and the kinds of role models children see outside the home. These behaviors and role models can influence children’s achievement goals, values, and self perceptions through observational learning ( D’Amico, Haurin, & Mott, 1983). 5. The fifth demographic is related to culture and ethnicity and how it can influence parents’ behavior and children’s motivation through mechanisms underlying values, goals, and general belief systems (e.g., valued activities, valued goals, and means of obtaining goals). For example, Ogbu (1985) has argued that parents value those characteristics that they assume will help their children succeed in their world. Other scholars describe cultural differences in valued activities, motivational orientation, and behavioral styles (Maehr & Nicholls, 1980; Modell, 1993; Stevenson, Chen et al., 1990;). As these differences can affect the socialization of motivated behavior through valued activies (e.g., althetic vs. musical competence), valued goals (e.g., communal goals vs. individualistic goals, or mastery vs performance). 27 In the African American community culture plays an essential role. “Afrocentrism” or African American identity (Thompson, 1991), which is a wide range of ideas, beliefs, and practices associated with African American or Black culture (Corneille et al., 2005; Gilbert, Harvey, & Belgrave, 2009), often helps to shape and define African American individuals. Operational definitions of Afrocentrism include dimensions of religiosity/spirituality, collectivism and racial pride, interest in traditional practices, and racial attitudes (Kreuter et al., 2003). Spirituality is extremely important in the Black community (Thompson, 2011). As noted by Resnisow et al. (2002), Black adolescents place higher value on religion than white adolescents, and African Americans in general. Throughout history, Black churches have served various roles in the community and are viewed as the epicenter in many communities (Aaron, Levine, & Burstin, 2003; Thompson 2011). Another example of Afocentrism is collectivism. At the core of collectivism is the belief that the basic unit of society is the group or family, not the individual (Nobles, 1991; White & Parham, 1990). Collective survival is a highly valued top priority and is reflected by concern and responsibility for others, loyalty, helpfulness, forgiveness, family security, true friendship, and respect for traditions and elders (Nobles, 1991; White & Parham, 1990). In a preliminary validation study of the Acculturation Scale by Landrine and Klonoff (1995), African Americans scored significantly higher (p < .0005) than Whites, Latinos, and Asians on dimensions of acculturation related to family values (e.g., “It’s better to move your whole family ahead in this world than it is to be out for only your- self”) (Landrine & Klonoff, 1995). Similarly, in a study of cultural differences in worldview, the construct “connection to family members” significantly discriminated between African Americans and Whites, with the African American women feeling a stronger connection to their families than White women (Baldwin & Hopkins 1990). 28 Racial pride is also a central aspect of Afrocentrism. Examples of racial pride are loyalty to Black-owned businesses and services; preferences for African American media such as music, magazines, and television programs; beliefs about the importance of promoting Black art and literature; feeling a debt to Blacks who have suffered before them; and confidence in Black professionals such as doctors and lawyers (Landrine & Klonoff, 1995; Grills & Longshore 1996; Thompson, 1991, Stokes, Marray, Peacock, & Kaiser, 1994). Cultural Considerations. It is essential to develop physical activity and sport programs that are culturally appropriate, sensitive, and that meet the needs and preferences of Black participants. Resnicow, Braithwatie, Dilorio, and Glanz, (2002) defined cultural sensitivity as “the extent to which ethnic/cultural characteristics, experiences, norms, values, behavioral patterns, and beliefs of a target population as well as relevant historical, environmental, and social forces are incorporated in the design, delivery, and evaluation of targeted health promotion interventions” (p.493). In the past few health promotion programs have made explicit attempts to develop culturally appropriate strategies and techniques to meet the needs of special populations (Marin G, Burhansstipanov L, Connell CM, et al, 1995; Kreuter, Lukwago, Bucholtz, Clark & Sanders-Thompson, 2003). Yet those that have been culturally tailored have shown promise with interventions being more effective when specifically designed for the populations they set out to serve (Belgrave, Chase- Vaughn, Gray, Addison, & Cherry, 2000; Belgrave et al., 2004; Corneille, Ashcraft, & Belgrave, 2005; Dowda et al., 2004; Gans et al., 2003; Kreuter, Lukwago, Bucholtz, Clark, & Sanders-Thompson, 2003; Kumpfer, Alvarado, Smith, & Bellamy, 2002; Pittman, 2003). A study conducted in 2003, by Kreuter, Lukwago, Bucholtz, Clark, and SandersThompson presented research that explored cultural tailoring in a health promotion program 29 culturally tailored for breast cancer prevention. An intriguing statement the authors noted was “that often times in practice culture is often assumed rather than assessed”. The authors briefly described five strategies commonly used to target programs to culturally defined groups, namely, (1) Peripheral strategies- these seek to give programs or materials the appearance of cultural appropriateness (e.g., using certain colors, images, font, “A guide for African Americans”), (2) Evidential strategies seek to enhance the perceived relevance of a health issue for a given group by presenting evidence of its impact on that group (e.g., “African Americans have higher rates of colorectal cancer than whites and other groups”), (3) Linguistic strategies seek to make health education programs and materials more accessible by providing them in the dominant or native language of the target group (e.g., translating program information from one language to another), (4) Constituent-involving strategies are those that draw directly on the experience of members of the target group (e.g., hiring staff members who are familiar with the population, training professionals from the community), and (5) Sociocultural strategies discuss healthrelated issues in the context of broader social and/or cultural values and characteristics of the intended audience (e.g., If religiosity is important to a group one might begin by examining church-based programs already in existence). Kreuter et al. (2003) went on to explain how a sixth approach, cultural tailoring, might extend these strategies and enhance one’s ability to develop effective programs for cultural groups. Kreuter et al. defined cultural tailoring as “any combination or change strategies intended to reach one specific person based on characteristics that are unique to that person, related to the outcome of interest and have been derived from an individual assessment” (p.137). The authors illustrated this new cultural tailoring approach with an example of cultural tailoring for cancer prevention in a population of lower income urban African American women. Kreuter 30 et al. (2003) gave an example of how health information can be culturally tailored; they described their ongoing project they culturally tailored for cancer prevention in African American women. They first defined the population by demographics and geographic characteristics; then identified potentially important cultural characteristics of the group. Authors settled on religiosity, collectivism, racial pride, and perception of time. To further articulate each construct, every participant was given a survey addressing health information that could be tailored based on construct. It is clear that future studies should consider exploring these different variables and, they will be included in the demographic questionnaire for the current study. By recognizing the strength of a person’s racial pride, culture, and understanding the effect of racial pride and culture on beliefs and practices related to health, including physical activity and sport participation, we might address health issues more directly and meaningfully (Kreuter et al., 2003). Although family demographic characteristics have been linked repeatedly to children’s motivation and achievement, parental beliefs and psychological and social resources could override the effect of even the most stressful demographic characteristics (Eccles’, 1998). Child and Sibling Characteristics (See Figure 2). Following parent, family, and neighborhood characteristics, the second component in Eccles’ et al.’s (1998) comprehensive model is child and sibling characteristics, such as gender, birth order, attitudes, and past performance experiences. Differences in social support provided by mothers vs. fathers, and differences in support given to sons vs. daughters have been examined (Beets, Vogel, Chapman, Pitetti, & Cardinal, 2007; Davison, Cutting, & Birch, 2003; Gustafson & Rhodes, 2006; Wilson & Dollman, 2007; Martin & Carlson, 2005). Davison et al. (2003) found that fathers provide 31 more conditional support such as planning outings or participating in activities directly with their child, whereas mothers provide more instrumental support such as, offering a helping hand or providing information. Gustafson and Rhodes (2006) revealed that boys tend to receive more parental support for physical activity and are more influenced by parent physical activity than girls, but positive correlations existed between mothers’ and daughters’ physical activity level and between fathers’ and sons’ physical activity. Other studies have also supported this finding (Beets, Vogel, Chapman, Pitetti, & Cardinal, 2007; Brustad, 1993; Eccles, 1993; Greendorfer, 1993; Martin & Carlson, 2005: Wilson & Dollman, 2007). African American girls seem to prefer different activities than White girls, which may also contribute to differences in physical activity behaviors between the two races. Grieser, Vu, Bedimo-Rung, Neumark-Sztainer, Moody, Young, and Moe (2006) studied physical activity attitudes, preferences, and practices among a diverse sample of middle school girls, conducting 80 semi-structured interviews from six different geographical regions around the United States. Other participants (n = 130) completed a physical activity checklist, which included 54 sports, recreational, and chore-related activities in order to identify favored activities, as well as activities the girls participated in within the past week. Grieser et al. (2006) found that African American girls cited basketball, running, and walking as favorite activities, whereas Caucasian girls favored swimming, basketball, and running. Finally, African American girls reported playing more basketball in the previous week compared to Caucasian girls, and a higher percentage of Caucasian girls reported engaging in gymnastics or aerobics. Grieser et al. (2006) noted that certain activities may be favored because of limited exposure to other activities, and suggested that girls should be introduced to new activities that they may find enjoyable. 32 Although the types of activities girls of different races participate in may vary, many of their perceived benefits and negative perceptions of physical activity were similar (Grieser et al., 2006). Girls of both ethnicities indicated that staying in shape and playing sports are among the most popular perceived benefits of being physically active. Differences emerged in less popular perceived benefits; for instance, being part of a team was seen as a benefit by a significant proportion of Caucasian girls (63%), but fewer African Americans (15%). Thirty percent of African American girls believed that physical activity gave them more energy, compared to only four percent of Caucasian girls (Grieser et al., 2006). Some commonly perceived negative aspects of physical activity were injury, sweating, and disliking certain sports or exercises. Perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors have been linked with Black adolescent girls’ views of physical activity as an unpleasant experience that messes up their hair and makeup (Grieser et al., 2006; Lewis-Moss et al., 2008; Nelson, Benson, & Jensen, 2009). Hair maintenance is a pertinent issue with Black girls who continually note that physical activity is not worth the time or money that it costs to get hair redone (Dietz, 2001: Taylor et al., 1999). This hair issue has been noted as a consistent and important concern in numerous studies (Boyington et al., 2008; Dietz, 2001; Grieser et al., 2006; Lewis-Moss et al., 2008; Nelson et al., 2009; Taylor et al., 1999). An additional theme that has emerged in a few studies with African American adolescents has been the negative stigmas and stereotypes toward physical activity. Specifically, being physically active is perceived as being less feminine (Grieser et al., 2008; Mabry et al., 2003). Vu, Murrie, Gonzalez, and Jobe (2006) sought to explore adolescent girls’ and boys’ perceptions of girls’ physical activity behaviors. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were constructed for middle school boys and girls. Interviews and discussion guides were 33 informed by social ecology theory. Adolescent girls and boys were recruited from middle schools throughout the United States and purposeful sampling was used to select participants based on gender, ethnicity, and perceived physical activity levels in physical education classes. The final sample consisted of 80 individual interviews with adolescent girls, 13 focus groups with 100 adolescent girls, and 11 focus groups with 77 adolescent boys. Vu et al. (2006) found that with regard to perceptions of physically active girls, the majority of the girls from the interviews had positive reactions to active girls. Differences existed in data that emerged from the boys’ focus groups, where common themes included describing active girls as “tomboys” and girls who played sports as too aggressive. An intriguing finding noted by the authors was that girls talked about girls being good at sport as possible motivators for their own participation but boys seemed to be uncomfortable with girls who were active. Boys were quoted saying “that’s disgusting,” and “that nasty ” when referring to physically active girls who sweat. Vu et al. (2006) also explored perceptions of barriers for girls being physically active and, too much astonishment, boys were at the top of the list, as the girls interviewed discussed how boys prevented and hindered their ability to be active. Negative reactions by boys were cited, including taunting and name-calling. This finding was confirmed in the boys’ focus groups. The boys interviewed admitted saying things to discourage girls from being active, usually in the form of teasing, specifically to girls who played football or any sport that was considered a “man’s sport.” Given the influence of peers on girls’ perceptions and choices toward physical activity and sport participation, as indicated by the studies outlined previously, it seems warranted to explore the influence that mothers may have on the hindrance or encouragement of physically active behaviors of young adolescent girls. 34 General Beliefs and Behaviors of Parents (See Figure 2). The third component in Eccles et al.’s (1998) comprehensive model is parents’ general beliefs and behavior, or more specifically, parental gender stereotypes, parenting styles, and culturally based beliefs. Although regularly engaging in physical activity is integral to a healthy lifestyle, disparities in levels of physical activity not only exist between genders, but between ethnic groups as well. Racial and ethnic differences in levels of physical activity and sport participation are due to a multitude of factors such as socioeconomic status, culture, and environment (Alleyne & LaPoint, 2004). A principal question one can ask is how does culture influence our health behaviors, and more specifically, why are culture and cultural stigmas important? Studies have provided intriguing findings. African Americans have a perception that “eating healthy” means giving up part of their cultural heritage and trying to conform to the dominant culture (James, 2004). Compared with White women, African American women are more satisfied with their weight and, if overweight, are more likely to feel attractive (Eyler et al., 2002). For instance, Evenson, Sarmiento, Macon, Tawney, and Ammerman (2002) found that Latina women believe that sports are for men and that family and children come before personal needs (such as being physically active). In addition to the acceptance of a larger body image, Corbett and Calloway (2006) suggested that African American females may experience cultural barriers such as a lack of knowledge about the importance of exercise, differing values ascribed to physical activity, health problems, and differing social norms, all of which may preclude their participation. In 1999, Philipp explored the idea of racial acceptance in the perceived importance of and participation of African Americans in various leisure activities in an attempt to explain the racial differences in these domains. Philipp (1999) noted that previous literature has explained racial differences in leisure activity participation by using both “marginality” and “ethnicity” 35 arguments, while ignoring the perceptions and emotions of African Americans in the context of various activities. To examine this concept of racial acceptance, Philipp (1999) used a random sample of middle-class African Americans (n = 124) and Caucasians (n = 170) living in racially integrated neighborhoods. Assessed were the level of importance African Americans and Caucasians place on selected leisure activities, the relationships between middle-class African American perceptions of racial acceptance in these activities, and the importance ascribed to their children’s involvement in those leisure activities. Participants completed a questionnaire rating 20 common indoor and outdoor leisure activities on two inquiries: “How welcome do you think most Blacks feel at the following activities,” and “As a parent or future parent, how much importance would you place on your child’s participation in the following activities?” A Likerttype scale was used where a score of 1 indicated “very welcome” and 6 indicated “very unwelcome.” Philipp (1999) presented several critical findings. African Americans indicated that members of their ethnic group would be less welcome than Caucasians in 16 of the 20 leisure activities. African Americans and Caucasians rated the same four activities their highest African American welcome ratings. The activities perceived more welcoming by African Americans and Caucasians, respectively, were playing basketball (mean = 1.52, 1.37), going to the mall (mean = 2.17, 1.76), going dancing (mean = 2.20, 1.86), and fishing (mean = 2.29, 1.89). For each of the 20 total activities, African Americans ranked activities as less welcoming than Caucasians. Both African Americans and Caucasians gave their lowest welcome rating to attending a country club, with scores of 4.25 and 3.61 respectively. Also, 10 of the 20 leisure activities were rated statistically different between racial groups for perceived importance to their child’s participation 36 in the leisure activities, with African Americans rating each of the 10 as being less important. The three activities rated as the least important (hunting, camping in the mountains, and going to country clubs) also had the highest welcome ratings (meaning participants felt very unwelcome). Philipp’s (1999) study suggested that African Americans and Caucasians share a similar understanding of where African Americans will find the most racial acceptance and where they may not. More importantly, Philipp (1999) proposed that many leisure activities may have racial information embedded in them, which may influence where African Americans feel they “fit in” and where they do not. In an attempt to answer the question, “Why do African Americans and Caucasians tend to participate in different sports when their (high) schools offer the same sports?” Goldsmith (2003) defined race as “an effect on culture from being in one socially constructed group (e.g., Black) rather than another (e.g., White)” (2003, p. 148). After examining participation rates in cheerleading, football, basketball, baseball/softball, soccer, and swimming, Goldsmith concluded that racial differences appeared to exist primarily because of structural inequalities in sports that Caucasians participated in relatively higher numbers (i.e., swimming, soccer, baseball/softball), In sports in which African Americans participated in higher numbers (i.e., basketball, football, cheerleading), race effects varied. In schools with a large proportion of African American students, race effects occurred in ways in which students focused on the activities that are stereotypically associated with their racial identity. Also, where strong racial hierarchies existed, African Americans emphasized activities that signal their superiority or equality. African Americans have not only developed perceptions about the importance and appropriateness of particular activities, but have also developed cultural traditions, beliefs, and values that do not typically match those of the dominant U.S. culture. 37 It is also important to note that cultural identity may shape one’s attitudes towards physical activity and sport. African Americans are more visible and participate in certain sports, such as basketball, baseball, and football, more than other sports; one has to also consider the influence of social class and access to other sporting opportunities (Bimper & Harrison, 2011; Messner, 1989, 1990; Sailes, 1996). Also the neighborhood in which a family lives may influence resources and role models that are available as children who live in neighborhoods that offer few opportunities and attend schools that receive little to no funding for extracurricular activities may have limited access to opportunities and resources (Alleyne & Lapoint, 2004; Corbett & Calloway, 2006). Parental Child-Specific Beliefs (See Figure 2). The fourth component in Eccles et al.’s (1998) comprehensive model, parental child-specific beliefs, illustrates how parents function as interpreters of information related to competence and values. This includes the parents’ expectations for their child’s performance, perceptions of their child’s abilities, perceptions of their child’s interests, and beliefs about the value of certain tasks. Eccles et al., (1983) found parents to have little influence through their power as role models; instead, it was their role as direct socializers of achievement beliefs and attitudes that were important to children’s physical activity participation. These beliefs and attitudes toward children’s physical activity participation influence the ways parents provide support and opportunities for their children to participate in physical activity. Findings from Eccles, Jacobs, and Harold (1990) indicated that parent perceptions of their children’s competence in math, English, and sports are influenced by their children’s gender, and by the parents’ gender role stereotypic beliefs about which gender is naturally more talented in these domains. The gender beliefs that parents hold not only influence the type of 38 opportunities parents provide for their children to be physically active, but also account for a significant portion of the variance in gender differences in children’s beliefs. Studies have shown that parents tend to value physical activity more for their sons than for their daughters, provide more encouragement to participate for their sons than for their daughters, and perceive a higher sport competence in their sons than their daughters (Eccles et al., 1990; Jacobs & Eccles, 1992; Fredricks & Eccles, 2005; Gustafson & Rhodes, 2006). In one study, boys reported receiving more encouragement from parents to be physically active than girls (Brustad, 1993), indicating that boys may be more socially driven to participate in sport and other physically demanding activities. The influence of the family on African American youths’ sports socialization has been given much attention by researchers in the sociology of sport. There is evidence arguing that African American families, more so than other groups, are inclined to push their children toward sport in an effort to obtain social mobility. Further, scholars argue that African American families’ approaches to sport can have negative consequences. Families are accused of pushing their children to overinvest in sporting careers with slim chances for upward social mobility at the expense of other career options with more realistic chances for social mobility (Carrington, 1986; Donnor, 2005; Edwards, 1969, 1984, 2000; Hoberman, 1997; Sigelman, 1998). Using indepth interviews with 17 African American 6-12 year old boys and their parents, Johnson and Migliaccio (2009) found that parents were described as possessing a great amount of family pride, as extremely encouraging of their child’s sports participation, and as purchasing sportsrelated items for them. Additionally, boys described professional sports participants as role models and a number of mothers were quoted as hopeful that their child could do well enough in sport to take care of themselves financially. 39 The importance of further research on how parents’ beliefs influence their children’s sport participation and the need to explore whether African American mothers perceive that physical activity and sport participation is as important for their daughters as it is for sons is highlighted in the aforementioned studies. Parent-Specific Behaviors (See Figure 2). The fifth component in Eccles et al.’s (1998) comprehensive model is parent-specific behaviors, which includes encouragement to participate in various activities, career guidance, and provision of toys and learning experiences. Parental encouragement is an important correlate of youth physical activity (Anderssen & Wold,1992; Cardon, Renaat, Johan, Lynn, Katrien, Anne-Line, & Ilse De, 2005; McGuire, Hannan, Stat, Neumark-Sztainer, Crossbow, Story, 2002). Correlations between parental support and children’s and adolescents’ levels of physical activity and sedentary behavior have been established (Anderssen & Wold, 1992; Sallis, et al., 1988; Raudsepp & Viira, 2000; Van Der Horst, Paw, Twisk, & Van Mechelen, 2007). Parents may provide their children with different types of social support to encourage their children to be physically active. According to Beets, Cardinal, and Alderman. (2010), there are four categories of social support: instrumental (e.g., purchasing equipment/payment of fees, transportation), conditional (e.g., doing activities with the child, watching/supervision), motivational (e.g., encouragement, praise,) and informational (e.g., discussing benefits). In Freedson and Evenson’s (1991) study, electronic motion sensors and activity records were used to examine the relationship between parents and children’s physical activity. Results showed a 67% correspondence level in the father-to-child physical activity level and a 73% correspondence level in the mother-to-child physical activity behavior among the same population of families (Freedson & Evenson, 1991). Moore and colleagues (1993) examined the 40 relationship between activity levels of parents and their children using electronic motion sensors and found that when both parents are active, children were 5.8 times as likely to be active when compared to children with two inactive parents. These results support the belief that physical activity contributes to the socialization process of engaging children into physical activity. Child outcomes (See Figure 2). The final component in Eccles et al.’s (1998) comprehensive model is child outcomes, which includes the child’s self-perceptions, values, short- and long-term goals, activity choices, and ultimately the actual performance. The phenomenon that girls are less likely to continue to participate in sport and vigorous physical activity throughout high school is particularly disturbing given the positive psychological benefits associated with these activities. This finding is troubling because sport serves as a primary means of physical activity during adolescence (McDonough & Crocker, 2005; Sirard, Pfeiffer & Pate, 2006). With such low levels of sport and physical activity participation among adolescent females, research has investigated girls’ attitudes towards and perceptions of sport and physical activity along with the exploration of the types of activities that possibly appeal to girls. In an attempt to describe and compare physical activities and sedentary pursuits of African American and Caucasian girls, Dowda, Pate, Felton, and Saunders (2004) used a 3-Day Physical Activity recall to measure participation in sedentary activities, activities of daily living, physical education, and organized sports. Participants in the study were eighth graders (n = 2746) from South Carolina. Roughly half (49%) of the sample was African American and 47% were Caucasian. The authors found that African American girls engaged in social dancing and basketball more often than their white counterparts. Caucasian girls engaged more in calisthenics, ballet, tap and other dance, jogging and running, rollerblading, soccer, softball, 41 exercise on machines, and swimming than African American girls (Dowda et al., 2004). Interestingly, the authors noted that while both African American and Caucasian girls indicated regularly participating in dancing, African American girls reported engaging in social dancing, whereas Caucasian girls reported participating in ballet and other dance. Finally, many of the activities that girls of both races reported engaging in and enjoying more, such as walking, jogging, running, bicycling, and social dancing, are not among the activities common in physical education classes (Dowda et al., 2004), suggesting that girls may not be likely to participate in these activities during structured physical activity time. Strengths of this study included a large sample size, an almost equal number of African American and Caucasian girls, representation from a range of communities, and reported differences in both the number of physical activities and sedentary activities. As thorough a study as it was, limitations were present in that a crosssectional study design was used and estimates of physical activity and sedentary behavior were obtained through self-report. Also, all participants were from South Carolina, and factors such as socioeconomic status were not measured leaving it impossible to determine if socioeconomic status played a role in the differences found (Dowda et al., 2004). To date, the majority of studies examining the role of the encouragement among African American children have only examined the encouragement among males. Given the strong empirical support for the importance of parents in Eccles’ model, parental involvement may be a key factor in increasing the physical activity and sport participation of African American girls because of the unique reciprocal relationship that exists between culture, mother-daughter bond, gender, and socialization into these practices. Children and adolescents are more likely to engage in daily physical activity when parental support is present (Simpkins, Fredricks, Davis-Kean, & Eccles, 2004). Parents can also 42 influence children’s beliefs about the importance of physical activity (Heitzler, Martin, Duke, & Huhman, 2006) and the degree to which children enjoy being physically active (Brustad, 1993). Given the current low levels of physical activity among African American female children and adolescents and the impact these low levels of physical inactivity (e.g., large amounts of sedentary time) can have on health, it is important to continue investigating precisely how parents, particularly mothers, influence their daughter’s participation in sports and physically demanding activities. Summary The African American female faces several unique challenges to physical activity and sport participation. Because of the role parents play in socializing their daughters into or away from sport and/or physical activity, it is important to understand the value parents place on common activities, as well as to gain insight into what parents, and mothers in particular, perceive as culturally-appropriate activities for their daughters. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to use Eccles comprehensive model of parental influences on their children’s motivation and achievement to explore African American mothers’ and daughters’ perceptions, values, and cultural views, and to examine whether or not they sway or impact the socialization of daughters’ participation in physical activity and sport. The second purpose is to explore the value African American mothers and their adolescent daughters place on physical activity and sport participation. The third purpose is to gain a better understanding of the mothers’ and daughter(s)’ social perceptions of what activities are culturally appropriate and or appealing for themselves and their daughters and the role culture plays in their choice to participate or not in PA and sports. 43 The aforementioned studies explored physical activity involvement in African American women and adolescent girls and noted significant differences in participation between African Americans and Caucasians. It is evident that physical activity and sport plays an important role in the lives of females regardless of race or ethnicity, but differences in activity levels and preferences demand further exploration, as it is not fully understood what role cultural stigmas, beliefs, and/or stereotypes have on physical activity and sport participation. To date, there is a limited amount of information on the recommendations to implementing programs that provide African American females with culturally appropriate activities to increase participation in physical activity. Because of the role African American mothers play in socializing their daughters into sport and/or physical activity, it is important to understand the value that mothers place on common activities, as well as to gain insight as to what mothers perceive as culturally appropriate/appealing activities for not only themselves but also their daughters. It seems important to examine whether African American mothers’ perceptions, values, and cultural and community views sway their own and their daughters’ participation in physical activity and sports. Also the researcher hopes to explore the daughters perceived perceptions, influence and support for physical activity and sport from their mothers. 44 CHAPTER 3 METHODS Research Design This study served as a precursor to future studies of African American females’ involvement in physical activity, thus a qualitative exploratory study was used to examine many aspects of mothers’ and daughters’ perceptions, perceived values, culture, attitudes, and feelings towards physical activity, exercise, and sport participation. Qualitative methodology is particularly well suited for research that seeks to holistically study constructed realities, subjective understandings, and interpretations (Marshall & Rossman, 2006). “Qualitative research begins with assumptions, a worldview, the possible use of a theoretical lens, and the study of research problems inquiring into the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem” (Creswell, p. 37, 2007). The individual experience is placed in strict focus in order to discover a specific theory of behavior or pattern of behavior (Creswell, 1998). According to Strauss and Corbin (1998), “qualitative research does not entail making statements about relationships between a dependent variable and an independent variable, as is common in quantitative studies, because its purpose is not to test hypotheses” (p. 41). Rather, qualitative research sets a research target on a particular phenomenon deemed worthy of study and identifies exactly what the researcher wants to know about this phenomenon (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The research design for this study was grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 1990; Strauss & Corbin 1998; Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Although grounded theory typically places an emphasis on the inductive creation of theory, it also involves the deductive testing of various ideas that existed prior to the research or emerged as part of the research (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Grounded theory allows theory generation directly from the data and the use of current empirical 45 models to frame the generated theory (Corbin & Strauss, 1990; Cresswell, 2007). Additionally, grounded theory research is particularly useful when there is literature or a model for a particular type of subject, but does not cover certain populations. Therefore, grounded theory was selected for this research study for two main reasons: (1) grounded theory allows the research to contribute to existing theory; and, (2) this technique provided for greater understanding of physical activity values and involvement in physical activity and sport among African American mother/daughter dyads. The understanding gained allowed the researcher to contribute to Eccles’ (1994) model particularly in better understanding the linkages of parents’ general beliefs and behaviors, parents; child-specific beliefs, and parent-specific behaviors (boxes C, D, and E of Eccles model; see Figure 2). While there has been extensive work on some components of the model, few studies have included the components underlying parenting behaviors as outlined in Box E of the model. Most research has focused on exogenous characteristics as found in Boxes A and B. Individual interviews were the chosen method of data collection because the purpose of the study was to explore meanings and attitudes associated with specific sport and physical activity behaviors (Fontana & Frey, 2000). Interviews provided a depth of information with respect to each individual. Participants The sample consisted of African American mothers and their adolescent daughters who were between the ages of 11-17 years. The participants were selected from the Midwest area. A purposeful sampling method (Patton, 1990), namely criterion sampling, was used to gather data from information-rich participants. Specifically, a criterion for this study was self-reported African American females, mothers and their adolescent daughters, who were between the ages 46 of 11-17 years. The qualifying age range (for the daughters) was chosen because of developmental and social issues that likely would garner more richness from the data. Participants in this age range have the ability to articulate their views in depth and have sufficient experience to provide a rationale for their beliefs. The reason for not having other inclusion or exclusion criteria is that the primary researcher felt the research questions could be best addressed by a range of people with varying levels of physical activity, experience, knowledge, and age ranges. The sample size was (N=24) 12 mothers and 12 daughters. The researcher sought a sample size large enough so that the criteria of sufficiency and saturation of information were achieved (Seidman, 1998). The sample included mothers and daughters from different neighborhoods and with an array of physical activity levels. After gaining approval from the Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects, the researcher began to contact potential participants for the study. The researcher located participants by recruiting from local fitness clubs, recreational facilities, churches, beauty shops, school athletic teams, and club teams. The researcher located active participants by first contacting high school athletic directors and requesting permission to contact teams and coaches. Non-active and active participants were recruited from local churches by contacting the head pastor of the church to request permission and a time to speak to church members, to make announcements during services, and to post ads in the weekly bulletin. Local beauty shops were solicited by contacting the master stylist and/or owner and requesting permission to post flyers recruiting participants. Interested participants contacted the primary researcher who gave indepth information about the research project and informed them what their participation would entail. The participant then agreed and a time and place was scheduled for an interview. A formal 47 letter with information about the study along with consent and assent forms were given to each participant. All recruited mothers who agreed to participate signed a consent form for themselves and one for their daughter. All recruited daughters who agreed to participate gave assent. After required consent and assent (See Appendix A, B) was obtained, individual interviews were conducted with the mother and daughter separately. Procedures After the consent and assent forms were obtained from each participant, an interview was scheduled at a convenient time and comfortable location for the participants. Participants were interviewed separately in their home or at a local coffee shop. The primary researcher conducted all of the interviews. At the start of each interview, the researcher explained the purpose of the study, the use of the tape recorder, and the directions for the demographic questionnaire. Then demographic questionnaires were given and each participant independently completed it and returned it to the interviewer. The participant was then again assured confidentiality would be maintained throughout the research project and reminded that at any time during the interview they did not have to answer any questions they were not comfortable with and had the right to withdraw and terminate the interview at any time with no negative repercussions. To build rapport with participants, interviews began with a simple question about experiences in physical activity or sport participation (Fontana & Frey, 2000), and then continued with the interview guide. In appreciation of their participation, participants received a $25.00 Visa gift card as compensation for travel, time spent, and other inconveniences (both the mother and daughter received a gift card). Interviews were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. Each participant was interviewed for approximately 20 minutes to 75 minutes. Promptly following the conclusion of each interview, the interviewer spent 10-15 minutes reflecting on the 48 interview, and took notes referencing the atmosphere, non-verbal communication, the behavior of the interviewee and anything else the interviewer thought was relevant. Instruments Demographics. Mothers each received a demographic survey. Mothers’ demographic questionnaires (Appendix C) had questions pertaining to socioeconomic status, education, marital status, number of children, occupation, activity level, neighborhood resources, and sport involvement as a child. Mothers also filled out the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) (See Appendix D). The IPAQ is an instrument designed and tested primarily for population surveillance of physical activity among adults. IPAQ assesses physical activity undertaken across a comprehensive set of domains including leisure time physical activity, domestic and gardening (yard) activities, work-related physical activity, and transport-related physical activity. The IPAQ short form asks about three specific types of activity undertaken in the four domains introduced above. The specific types of activity that were assessed included walking, moderateintensity activities, and vigorous-intensity activities (IPAQ, 2005). The proposed three levels of physical activity on the IPAQ are, low, moderate, and high (IPAQ, 2005). Table 1 IPAQ Description Low Moderate This is the Any one of the following 3 criteria lowest level of • 3 or more days of vigorous activity PA. Those of at least 20 min per day OR individuals • 5 or more days of moderate-intensity who do not activity or walking of at least 30 min meet criteria per day OR for categories • 5 or more days of any combination 2 or 3 are of walking, moderate-intensity or considered vigorous intensity activities achieving inactive. a minimum of at least 600 METmin/week. 49 High (category 3) Any one of the following • Vigorous-intensity activity on at least 3 days and accumulating at least 1500 MET-minutes/week OR • 7 or more days of any combination of walking, moderate-intensity or vigorous intensity activities achieving a minimum of at least 3000 MET-min/week Mothers also completed the Racial Pride Scale (Appendix E). The scale consisted of 7items which were rated on a 4-point, likert scale (strongly disagree, disagree, agree, and strongly agree) (Lukwago et al., 2001).) The Racial Pride Scale assessed interest and involvement in traditional practices and holding positive racial attitudes. The scale measures 5 aspects of African American ethnic identity, namely, (1) preference for things African American, (2) traditional foods and practices, (3) African American self-consciousness and identity, (4) racial pride, and (5) Afrocentrism (Lukwago et al., 2001). Daughters’ demographics survey (Appendix F) consisted of questions regarding age, siblings, birth order, and sport and physical activities. The daughters also completed the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C). The PAQ-C is a 7-day recall instrument, a score of 1 indicates low physical activity and a score of 5 represents high physical activity (Kowalski, Crocker, & Donen, 2003). Findings from the Mothers’ and Daughters’ demographic questionnaires are summarized in Table 1 that can be found in chapter 4. Interview Guide. A general interview guide approach was used which allowed for a conversational approach and allowed a degree of freedom in getting information from participants but also ensured that the same general areas of information were collected from each interviewee. Initially, open-ended questions were asked of participants. This approach was especially helpful when interviewing the adolescent daughters. When questions are open-ended, the participants have more opportunity to discuss topics and modes of discourse that are familiar to them (Eder & Fingerson, 2005). The interview guide(s) (See Appendix E and F) acted as a framework in which the interviewer used the developed questions as a guide (Patton, 2002). In creating the interview guide, the researcher first created an outline of the relevant topics and generated lines of inquiry, 50 followed by the creation of relevant questions for each item (Berg, 2009; Patton, 2002). The interview guides were developed based on the research questions, Eccles’ comprehensive model of parental influences on children’s motivation and achievement, and subsequent sport- related research on parents’ expectations and values (Kimiecik, Horn, & Shurin, 1996). The interview guide was first pilot tested on two mother/daughter dyads (the pilot interviews were not used for analyses) that resulted in a few questions being reordered and/or reworded. The interview protocol began with warm-up, non-threatening questions, designed to develop rapport (Berg, 2009). The questions then progressed to the more essential questions (Berg, 2009). The final questions allowed the participants to add any remaining information or clarify or elaborate on any responses given during the interview. Trustworthiness Trustworthiness was established using an audit trail, employing member checking, and peer debriefing. An audit trail was constructed to document the progress of research from the start to its completion (Carcary, 2009). Creditability was established by using prominent methodologies such as allowing the data to speak to the findings, and providing rich and thick descriptions regarding the settings of the interviews, details of each subject interviewed and the procedures (Shenton, 2004). In an effort to ensure honesty among participants, each was given the opportunity to withdraw participation from the study at any time. This was done to ensure that those who wanted to take part in the study did so willingly and as a result, freely offered information (Shenton, 2004). In the interviews, the researcher implemented iterative questioning (returning to previous statements mentioned during the interviews) to check for contradictions, and unintentional untruthful statements (Shenton, 2004). 51 The researcher also engaged in peer debriefing sessions, where discussions about the plan of actions for the progression of research occurred. Peer debriefing was done by presenting sections of the analysis to a member of the dissertation committee throughout the analytical process. Bi- weekly meetings were held for the researcher to further explain the process of arriving at the findings as well as the meaning of the findings and discuss those findings with the committee member. Feedback was incorporated into the analysis where appropriate. The research team consisted of two PhD candidates plus the lead investigator, all of whom both had qualitative data analysis experience as well as similar research backgrounds in studying African American women and girls. The research team members engaged in meetings and discussions concerning the interpretation of coding and results. The team was also used as a source to generate critical feedback in assisting to achieve trustworthiness. Dependability was acquired through the clarity of the research questions, paradigms, and analytical constructs (Shenton, 2004). Crosschecking of codes with research team members and discussion of results interpretations assured dependability. Member checking was also conducted to confirm the accuracy of the data by ensuring that the participants felt as though their interview summary was what they intended to say (Shenton, 2004). This also gave participants the opportunity to offer further explanations if wanted or needed. Conformability was accomplished (1) Through the clarity and reproducibility of the study as a result of the detailed description of methods, and by (2) the clear link we will address in our studies, research questions, research findings, and conclusions. Data Analysis Qualitative analysis strategies consider the implications of cultural, social, and historical context for their evaluation findings, consciously thinking holistically (Patton, 2002). Grounded 52 theory involves a constant interchange between the data collection and analytic processes (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Development of the analytic process was ongoing from the beginning of the investigation. Raw data verification refers to the process of going back and comparing the theory against the raw data (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The theoretical propositions to set up and synthesize the theory were taken from Eccles’ model (1998) of parental influences on children’s motivation and achievement. The concepts and ideas from Eccles’ model of parental influences on their children’s motivational achievement expectancy-value model (1998) were used to guide data collection and analysis, which is a preferred strategy in analyzing qualitative data (Yin 2003). Grounded theory uses detailed procedures for analysis, which consist of three phases of coding, open coding, axial coding, and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Coding is where the researcher attaches labels to segments of data that depict what each segment is about (Charmaz, 2006). Analysis began with the main researcher conducting open coding by going through the transcripts line by line to provide salient categories of information (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Specifically, the researcher examined individual words, phrases, and sentences from the transcribed interviews. After open coding which served to develop the preliminary categories, consensus and peer debriefing began as the main researcher and the members of the research team independently coded and analyzed the data in order to enhance trustworthiness. Members conducted axial coding which combined the data in new ways to form more inclusive categories. In other words, we related categories and concepts to each other (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Lastly, the main researcher and the other two members of the research team did selective coding. This is where main categories were selected and systematically related to other 53 categories. Researchers followed the guidelines below as recommended by Strauss (1987) (a) category’s centrality in relation to other categories, (b) frequency of a category’s occurrence to other data, (c) its inclusiveness and the ease with which it related to other categories, (d) clarity of its implications for a more general theory, (e) its movement toward theoretical power as details of the category were worked out, and (f) its allowance for maximum variation in terms of dimensions, properties, conditions, consequences, and strategies (as cited in Creswell, 2007, p. 290). This research was intended to give voice to African American mothers and their adolescent daughters. Therefore, the participants were invited to be an ongoing part of the analysis process. Six of the mothers and five adolescent participants chose to provide feedback to the researcher throughout the coding process via emails and or telephone conversations. Various strategies were used to test and confirm interpretations. Multiple data sources were used such as interviews and field notes (e.g., notes on participants’ demeanor, flow of conversation, major points of view, and so forth), and clarification of responses at the end of each section (Gray, 2003; Keats, 2000). Evidence and member checking with participants was maintained throughout. An experienced research team helped with analyses and assisted with confirming findings and interpretation. Once the analysis was completed, two matrixes were completed, one for Mothers’ (appendix I) and for Daughters (appendix J). The matrix served as a diagram that assisted the researcher to visualize the findings. Results were written up by themes and show the relationships between themes and Eccles’ model. Also, a revised Eccles’ model filled with the current findings can be found in Appendix K. Assumptions 54 There were two major assumptions for this study. The first assumption was that all participants understood the questions asked and answered honestly. The second assumption was that all participants were able to think critically about their values and choices toward physical activity and exercise. Significance of the study To date, there has been a limited amount of information on the recommendations for implementing programs that provide African American females with culturally appealing activities that would increase participation. Because of the role parents play in socializing their daughters into sport and/or physical activity, it is important to understand the value parents place on common activities, as well as to gain insight as to what parents perceive as culturallyappealing activities for not only themselves but their daughters. The current study demonstrated the importance of understanding the perspectives of mothers and daughters who do and do not participate in physical activity and sport, and the impact that the African American culture has on the desirability and perceived values of physical activity and sport. It is deemed important to examine whether African Americans mothers’ perceptions, values, or cultural and community views sway their own as well as their daughters participation in physical activity and sports. 55 CHAPTER 4 RESULTS This study was designed to explore perceptions, beliefs, values, and maternal influence on African American girls’ participation in physical activity and sport. The results are presented separately for the 4 main research questions. The first research question was what values do African American mothers and daughters place on sport and physical activity. The second question was what are the daughters’ perceived parental influence for sport and and/or physical activity participation. The third question addressed the mothers’ perceived influences on their daughters’ participation in sport and/or physical activity participation. Finally, the fourth question asks if there are certain sports/activities considered by African American mothers and daughters to be more culturally appropriate/appealing than others. Results are organized around each question and preceded by a detailed description of the mothers and daughters who participated in the study. Findings for each research question contain an overview of common themes as well as accompanying sub-themes. Prior to presenting the results of each research question, a brief table outlining subthemes, and the number of participants who referenced each theme is presented. In addition, verbatim quotes from participants (mothers and daughters) will be presented to elucidate the values they place on sport and physical activity, their perceptions of parental influences and parental roles, as well as what sports/activities were considered to be more culturally appealing than others. Description of participants 56 The description of the participants has been divided into two sections. In the first section the mother/daughter dyads are described from the information they provided in the demographic survey. The second section provides a narrative description of each mother and daughter. Participants in the study are presented in Appendix. The descriptive data were collected from the demographic questionnaire. The first three dyads (light gray area) represent mothers who are active and daughters who have low involvement in physical activity. Four dyads where both mothers and daughter were active are presented in the second area (non shaded). In the third light gray shaded area are two dyads representing active daughters and inactive mothers. Finally, in the last non shaded area both mothers and daughters have low physical activity. 33 Beauti cian Cosmetolog y license S 1 0 52 Audit manag er Bachelors degree W 1 1 50 Acting Judge Law degree D/ S 57 IPAQ Score 14 IPAQ score Birth order Home treadmill, weights, bike Fitness DVDs Gym member Home gym (treadmill, elliptical, bicycle, weight bench) Fitness DVDs Gym member Home gym (stair climbers, treadmill, weights) Wii video game Gym member Age 9 Neighborho od/home resources identity score Highest education Marital status Occupation Age Dyad # Table 2 Descriptive of Mother-Daughter Dyads Middl 1.5 e 3 High 17 1.7 child 2.5 Only 5 Middl 2 Mode rate 16 e 4 High Table 2 (cont’d) 1 State emplo 31 yee 3 Univer sity 32 Staff 6 Custo mer service 30 rep 5 School social 41 worker 8 Law Profes 44 sor 4 On air person 34 ality 2 Some college Some college High school Masters degree S M S M Home treadmill Fitness DVDs Gym member Local fitness centers YMCA member Home Treadmill Local YMCA (non member) Home treadmill Fitness DVDs Gym member Home treadmill Fitness DVDs Gym member 13 3.3 13 3.7 5 Oldest Only 3.5 High child 2.5 High 13 Middl 3.4 e 3.5 High 15 3.6 Young 3 est Mode rate Some college M S Local YMCA (non member) 4 Oldest 4.5 13 Law Degree 17 Middl 3 Low e 4 Low Phlebo Some tomist college M 7 36 1 2 35 Patient care Some tech college Custo mer service High school S M Local YMCA (not a member) 17 3.2 5 2.6 17 4 Oldest Oldest 1.4 15 35 Home punching bag Wii fit Local YMCA (non member) Fitness centers (non member) Young 3 Low Low est 2.5 Low M-Married, S-Single, W-Widowed, D-Divorced All study participants are referred to by pseudonyms. Table 3 presents a summary of and introduction to each mother and her daughter. 58 Table 3 Summary of each dyad Mothers 1. Angela. A 31-year-old single female is currently a fulltime state employee. Angela was pretty active as a young child and is currently inactive as she noted she just started getting involved in exercise again. She expressed that she really wants her daughter to participate in sports. Angela is the mother of two children, one daughter and one younger boy. 2. Susan. A 35-year-old married female is currently a fulltime phlebotomist. As a younger child she rode her bike to friend’s houses and played outside. Other than that Susan admits she was a pretty lazy kid, not participating in any organized sports. She noted that her younger years were the most active and by high school she wasn’t doing anything activity. Currently does not exercise. Susan was recently remarried and is the mother of 3, two daughters and one younger stepson. 3. Karin. A 32-year-old recently remarried works fulltime at a university. Karin was really active as a child; noted playing competitive softball at the age of 10 and received a full athletic scholarship for softball. Expressed that she encourages her daughter to participate in everything that she thinks she might want to do. Karin is the mother of 1 daughter and at the time of the interview was 6 months pregnant expecting her second child. Karin admitted to not being involved in P/A but expressed as soon as she had the baby she would be back on the softball field. 4. Michelle. A 34-year-old single female is currently a part-time on air radio personality. Very active as a younger child. Currently admitted to not being very active but knows she needs to. Noted that she knows being active is very important for all her kids. Michelle is the mother of three kids two daughters and one younger boy. Daughters 1. Megan. 13-year-old 7th grade student is the eldest child of two. Past sport participation has been dance, swimming, and tennis. She now solely participates in basketball and considers it her main sport. At the time of the interview, she was playing basketball on two teams competitively. 2. Courtney. 17-year-old 12th grade student who works part time at a local fast food restaurant. She is the eldest child of three. Past sport participation has been dance, basketball, cheerleading, track and field. She expressed the desire to continue participation in sports as a child but noted family finances got in the way. At the time of the interview, she was not involved in any sports or exercise but did express that she had a desire to “do something to be in shape”. 3. Stephanie. 13-year-old 7th grade student is a only child and just moved back with her mom as she was out of state for the past few years living with her father. While living with her father she was not physically active at all. After moving back with her mother she has participated in a number of different sports (volleyball, softball, cheer, and track) and activities and at the time of the interview was playing on the middle school girls basketball team. 4. Missy. 13-year-old 8th grade student is the middle child of three. Past sport participation has been dance, and basketball. At the time of the interview she was not involved in a competitive sport but did participate in exercise classes and in a program called “girls on the move.” She went to that three times a week. 59 Table 3 (Cont’d) 5. Candice. A 41-year-old married female whose husband played division one football. Candice is a fulltime school social worker.. Through her high school years Candice participated in basketball and softball and noted that it wasn’t until college when she stopped being active. Candice is her daughters’ number one fan an avid supporter of her daughter and highly involved in sport participation. Candice is the mother of two kids 1 boy and one daughter. 6. Tamika. A 30-year-old single female is currently a full-time customer service rep. Currently says her boyfriend just brought her a treadmill so she has been working out at home the pass couple weeks 3 or 4 times a week. Tamika also noted that at her job she is constantly on her feet walking back and fourth all day so feels she is very active at work. Noted that she knows being active is very important for all her girls but financially just cannot afford for all of them to be involved so currently none are. Tamika is the mother of three daughters. 7. Lindsey. A 36-year-old single female is currently a part-time patient care tech. Was not active as a child and is not currently involved in any physical activity. Lindsey is the mother of four kids, two daughters and two sons. 8. Meredith. A 44-year-old married female. Meredith is a fulltime Law Professor. As a young child she was extremely active participated and played softball through out high school and volleyball as a young child throughout college. Admits to not doing anything sense then. The most she said she does is walk periodically. Meredith is the mother of three girls. 5. Brittany. 15-year-old 10th grade student is the youngest child has one older brother. Brittany is an extremely active girl; she participates in volleyball, track, and basketball. Brittany considers basketball as her main sport. At the time of the interview, she was playing basketball competitively on her high school team and an AAU travel team. Brittany is currently being recruited by top division onebasketball programs and is considered a top prospect. 6. Danielle. 13-year-old 7th grade student is the middle child of three. Past sport participation has been dance, cheerleading and basketball. At the time of the interview she was not involved in any sport but did stress a strong desire to be participating in sports and physical activity. 7. Laura. 17-year-old 12th grade student has a part-time job. Laura participated in basketball for one year when she was 10 years old. Since then has not participated in any sports or physical activities. At the time of the interview Laura was not active and participated in after school programs and clubs that had to do with academics i.e., book clubs. 8. Shalane. 17-year-old 12th grade student is the eldest child of three. As a child she participated in a great number of sports, is now considered an elite soccer player as she is invited to Olympic development programs. At the time of the interview, she was playing travel soccer and had just accepted a athletic scholarship to a division one program to continue to play soccer. 60 Table 3 (Cont’d) 9. Shelia. A 33-year-old single female is currently the owner and master stylist of her own beauty shop. She was very active as a child from riding bikes to playing neighborhood games. In her early years of high school she was on the dance and cheer team. Her junior year she stopped to pursue a part time job. She currently exercises on and off but try’s to participate in exercise at least 3 times a week. Admits she is currently trying hot yoga. Tamika is the mother of three, two girls and one boy. 10. Cathy. A 52-year-old widow female Cathy is a full time audit manager. Cathy noted herself as being extremely active as a kid. She admits the benefits of exercise and says she currently works out at home 1-2 times a weeks but admits she should do it more and consistently stick to it. She said she starts then falls off for a while and has to get back into it. She also admitted she felt her daughter was lacking in physical activity and exercise. Cathy is the mother of one daughter. 11. Ruth. A 50-year-old single (divorced) female. Ruth is an acting judge. Ruth was an active child until she was a teenager; she played basketball, softball, and ballet. Ruth stressed the benefits of her participating in exercise and currently has a gym membership and tries to workout at lest four days a weeks but admits its often tough because of her schedule. Ruth is the mother of a set of triplet two girls and one. 12. Lauren. A 35-year-old married female. Lauren works in customer service for a call center fulltime. As a young child she was extremely active with neighborhood activities but has never participated in any sports and has not consistently exercised since immediately after the birth of her daughter years ago. Lauren is the mother of 1 girl. 9. Melissa. 13-year-old 7th grade student is the middle child of three. Past sport participation has been dance, cheerleading and a short stint with track and field. At the time of the interview she was on her middle schools basketball team. This was her first season playing basketball. 10. Kristen. 17-year-old 11th grade student is an only child. Kristen was very active as a young child, did dance, jazz, and tap. Also tried soccer and track around the age of 11. At the time of the interview Kristen was not involved in any sports or physical activity. Two weeks prior to the interview she tried track but quit after two practices and said she just didn’t like running. 11. Caly. 16-year-old 10th grade student is the middle child of a set of triplets. In the past Caly has participated in tennis, softball, and marching band. At the time of the interview she was not participating in any organized physical activities but is highly involved in the Debutants, and plays tennis every once in a while and monthly. 12. Honesty. 16-year-old 11th grade student who works at a retail store parttime. She was active as a small child but now says she has other priorities to tend to and likes working to have her own money. Honesty is the eldest child of three. At the time of the interview, she was not participating in any organized sports but did say she tries to be active when she can. 61 Purpose 1: What values do African American mothers and daughters place on sport and physical activity? The first research question examined the values mothers and daughters placed on sport and physical activity. To assess values placed on sport and physical activity, both mothers and daughters were asked about their perceived benefits and negative outcomes from participation in sport and physical activity. Three main themes emerged for daughters, namely, likes, benefits, and importance, and two major were identified for mothers, specifically, benefits and importance. This first section examines the components that contributed to the value of sport and physical activity participation for the daughters. Table 4. Daughters Values of Physical Activity and Sport Likes Benefits Stay in Shape (2) Health Benefits (6) Fun (6) Something to do (3) Social (3) Learn New things/life skills (4) Keeps me motivated (2) Future opportunities (5) Helps stay focused (2) Importance Yes! Very (6) Kind of…not really (5) No (1) Future opportunities Likes. The first theme for value of physical activity noted by daughters was labeled “likes” physical activity and sport participation. When participants were asked what if anything do they like about participating in sports and physical activity, a few different subthemes emerged, namely, social, fun, life skills, learning sport skills, and staying in shape. Sports and physical activity provided a “social” venue for meeting people and making friends. “It’s like a social triangle because I meet so many different people” (Megan, Daughter 1) “Sports are really important when you’re younger to like build relationships.” (Honesty, Daughter 12) 62 “I just really enjoy being with my teammates who then become my friends” (Shalane, Daughter 8) Four daughters noted that “learning sports skills” was a major attraction to sport and physical activity participation. “I learned a lot of things I didn’t know, like when I’m sitting up with my uncles, we are watching tv and they’re all like oh they got the ball or whatever, and at the time I didn’t know anything about it until I started playing sports like basketball.” (Megan, Daughter 1) “In cheerleading I got some new moves and I learned how to be on beat and have more rhythm” (Courtney, Daughter 2) Benefits. The second theme for value of physical activity noted by daughters was the “benefits” gained from physical activity and sport participation. When asked what are some of the benefits of engaging in physical activity, several daughters just plainly commented on how much “fun” they had when participating in physical activity and sports. Example responses were, “You’re going to have fun in sports but if you really like the sport, then of course it’s going to be really, really fun!” Another daughter said, “Having fun is the best thing about playing sports.” Other subthemes identified, as benefits were something to do, health benefits, life skills, and the chance for future opportunities. Six out of the 12 daughters noted both health and increased body image and appearance as a positive benefit of sport and physical activity participation “When you’re older to keep in shape, not get big or fat, and have like a healthy active lifestyle so you can live a long time.” (Caly, Daughter 11) “It seems like more people are getting obese now and, you know like um, I just feel like getting more obese now people are starting to care more about their weight. I’m starting to care more about my weight.” (Courtney, Daughter 2) Six out of 12 daughters noted talked about acquiring life skills that could be used outside of sports as a benefit of of sport and physical activity participation . 63 “Sports keep me focused for school. I have to have good grades in order to play.” “Helps you learn to work with other people.” (Melissa, Daughter 9) “Helps become a good leader” (Brittany, Daughter 5) Five daughters noted that sport participation brings the possibility of college scholarships, adding positive things on to one’s college application, and noting that by participating and engaging in physical activity and sports when younger could lead to lifelong continued participation. “A lady was telling me how she ran track and they paid for her whole college and she been there for three years, so that would be cool if that happened to me.” (Megan, Daughter 1) “Keeps me motivated that I could have a good future.” (Brittany, Daughter 5) Perceived importance of physical activity. Another subtheme for value of sports and physical activity for daughters was their actual perceived importance of physical activity. When asked “How important is physical activity and or sport to you, responses were categorized as “very important” and “kind of (but not really).” Eight out of the 12 daughters said that they felt physical activity and sport participation is “very important” and the other four noted it as “kind of (but not really)”. When the daughters noted the importance of sports and physical activity, they always listed why. Those who did note that it was really important to them each stated why and each reason seemed to be tied to their own image or one that seemed to make them better. Daughters that noted it as very important stated reasons such as, going on one’s application to get into college, possibility of getting an athletic scholarships, and building relationships. Kristen stated, “It is really important, if you don’t get enough physical activity it will hurt your body weight”. 64 Brittany stated, “Physical activity is really important to me; school then sports, sometimes sports then school”. The daughters who noted sports and physical activity as “kind of” made the following statements, Laura said, “It’s just not that important to me. I mean it’s good to do but I don’t think I pay much attention to doing it”. Kristen said, “I mean it’s important to me but it’s not really important to me. Like, I don’t know, it’s important to do physical activity, but I don’t really like it so I don’t do it. So, I can’t say it’s important to me”. Melissa said, “Sports and exercise comes after a lot of stuff. Like family, school, I don’t know, like friends, so I guess its not that important to me”. In summary, value for sport and physical activity was clearly expressed by daughters in their likes of participation through the sub categories of life skills, learning sport skills, staying in shape and the social aspects of participation. Daughters also noted health, something to do, fun, learn new things/life skills, and future opportunities as their perceived benefits. Finally, most noted the importance of sport and physical activity participation, but it was not equally important to all of the girls. Purpose 1: Values mothers place on sport and physical activity Based on the interview comments, Mothers sub-themes for measuring the value of physical activity and sport consisted of (1) benefits, and (2) importance. The following section examines the components that contributed to the value of sport and physical activity participation for their daughters. Table 5. Mothers Values Importance Very Important (8) Not Important (4) Benefits Scholarships (5) Socialization (5) Psychological (11) Future opportunities (5) 65 Table 5. (contd) Physical/health benefits Life skills outside sport (12) Benefits. Based on the interviews with the mothers, the subthemes for “benefits” of sport and physical activity participation for their daughter are characterized as psychological benefits, health benefits, life skills outside of sport, and social aspects. During the interviews 11 out of the 12 mothers listed a number of psychological benefits sport and physical activity participation brought. Categories for the mothers perceived psychological benefits included self-confidence, self-esteem, and mental toughness. Several mothers talked about the value of developing greater self-confidence through participation in sport and physical activity. “Helps give people confidence in themselves” (Michelle, Mother 4) “I just want her to have a strong identity in who she is, and not just people talking about her like oh my gosh you’re so beautiful you should be a model. I want her not to just be seen as beautiful but to be seen as strong and smart and athletic, you know, all of those things” (Candice, Mother 5) “Helps give people confidence as they participate in sports and that give them a sense of purpose or something to do” (Shelia, Mother 9) Mothers also valued the role that sport and physical activity played in developing a higher level of self-esteem. “I feel it’s really good for kids to have something they feel like they’re good at. And sports is one of those things.” (Meredith, Mother 8) “I’m 32 years old and I still have body issues, because people used to pick on me when I was heavier when I was younger. So, I really drive it into her about, you can have—I mean we talk about diet, I talk about everything with her because I want to make sure that she’s empowered” (Karin, Mother 3) 66 “When you’re athletic I’m saying it’s not as hard to go through your life as far as elementary, middle, high school…you know, that’s just what I see.” (Shelia, Mother 9) Building stronger character and mental strength or tougness was also a value gained through sport participation. Mothers did not talk about this development as a result of engaging in physical activity only. “Sports builds really strong character, her having to deal with that and kind of separate the personal from the athletic side” (Candice, Mother 5) “I just think sports help you mentally” (Karin, Mother 3) A strong subtheme related to health benefits from participating in physical activity or sports. Ten out of the 12 mothers and noted health and increased body image and appearance as a positive outcome of sport and physical activity participation “Especially being black and all you hear is [sic] things [illnesses] that we could get, you know, but being healthy exercising is something that is good” (Tamika, Mother 6) “I’m looking for the positive benefits, I’m not looking for the next Michael Jordan necessarily. And it may lead to that, they may get a scholarship behind that, and if they do, that’s fine. But that’s not necessarily what I’m looking for. Again, I’m looking at the overall health benefits behind it.” (Karin, Mother 3) “There is a lot of kids overweight, you know what I mean, and that could lead to all kinds of problems such as heart problems, diabetes, and I think being active could help prevent that.” (Lindsey, Mother 7) “She’s getting ready to go to high school, like I know that weight is part of your image, and people can pick on you. I was heavier as a child so I am adamant about her not having body issues.” (Karin, Mother 3) “I don’t think that a child should have a sedentary life style, because they should remain active, I mean again, you—the body, good exercise, you know. Any qualified medical source says the body needs exercise.” (Cathy, Mother 10) These responses clearly showed how strongly mothers perceived health and appearance benefits to be for their daughters engaging in physical activity. 67 Another strong subtheme relating to benefits, presented by mothers, was the acquiring of life skills outside of sport. Every mother interviewed commented about the life skill benefits that sport participation brings. These included categories such as building character, acquiring leadership skills, helping to stay focused, teamwork, and helping maintain good grades. A few selected quotes from mothers are presented below. “Keeps them focused on school work because she can’t play, if she doesn’t get the grades. So her grades are excellent. She has a 3.98 (gpa) because she knows if you have academic problems, she can’t play.” (Meredith, Mother 8) “I have seen leadership out of her that you know I think she’s learned from being on the court, and just being an athlete.” (Angela, Mother 1) “She’s been put in situations where she’s had to play umm—like she played on a team where it was all white, so she’s had to play and be the only minority and be like the outsider, where she unfortunately came in and took others people spots. So, I think she learned a lot from that.” (Candice, Mother 5) Another subtheme from benefits of sports and physical activity participation was future opportunities for college scholarships and lifelong participation. Five mothers noted sport participation brings the possibility of scholarships, adding positive things on to one’s college application, and noting that participating and engaging in physical activity and sports when younger could lead to lifelong continued participation. “A lot of times when they go off to college, those people who are looking at whether or not to accept your child in college want to look at what else did this child do besides grades and academics.” (Susan, Mother 2) “She’s helping me, ‘cause if you’re good, then you get a scholarship, I don’t gotta worry about money for college.” (Karin, Mother 3) “I’m always saying Girl we gotta keep this up! You gotta keep up the good grades, you gotta keep working hard and pushing yourself to do better in basketball. We need help paying for college!” (Angela, Mother 1) 68 “When my daughter played basketball it was probably beneficial because she could have gotten a scholarship and things like that, but she didn’t want to pursue it ‘cause she didn’t like the sport.” (Lindsey, Mother 7) The last subtheme found in benefits from physical activity from mothers was social benefits. When mothers were asked what benefits they perceived from physical activity participation from their daughters, some noted the opportunity to meet and make new friends as well as hangout with existing friends. “It really helped her like meet people and have friends, kind of instantly, as opposed to, just being the new girl on the first day.” (Karin, Mother 3) “I like that sports has you getting out there and exposing yourself to new things” (Angels, Mother 1) Importance. The last main theme found from mothers related to value was the mothers perceived importance attached to their daughters’ engagement in physical activity and sport participation. Eight mothers noted it was very important for their daughter to engage in physical activity and sport. Surprisingly, four mothers said it was not important. In summary, mother’s value was established in exploring the benefits they feel their daughter acquires from participation in physical activity and sport and how important they perceive participation is for their daughter. Mothers provided a long list of valued benefits their daughters received through participation in sport and physical activity. The main benefits included life skills outside of sports, psychological benefits, physical and health benefits, opportunities for college scholarships, and socialization with friends. Most mothers perceived participation in sport and physical activity as very important. Purpose 1: Negative Outcomes of Participation in Sport and Physical Activity It was clear that value was found in physical activity and sport engagement from the number of benefits and level of importance established by both mothers and daughters. However, 69 in order to thoroughly explore value one cannot just examine the likes, benefits, and importance of something, but perceived costs and/or perception of barriers or negative outcomes should also be explored. Based on the mothers’ comments, cost for sport and physical activity is characterized by (a) resources, (b) time, (c) mean parents and peers, (d) injuries, and (e) racial issues. The daughters’ subthemes for perceived costs were (a) resources, (b) negative feedback, (c) physical aspects, (d) social aspects, and (e) discouraging factors (See table 6). Table 6. Negative Outcomes Mothers Resources (5) Mean parents/peers (3) Racial issues (3) Injuries (3) Time (6) None (4) Daughters Resources (5) Negative feedback (4) Social Issues (4) Future opportunities (5) Discouraging factors (4) Life skills outside sport (12) Resources. A subtheme related to perceived cost associated with sport and physical activity participation was resources. The two major resources mentioned by the mothers were transportation and financial difficulty. Four mothers made note of financial difficulty and three cited transportation issues resulting from being a single parent household. Thus, at times taking their child to and from practice was difficult. “Money back then was our issue like I did push her in a lot of different things and, you know, she would start doing something and then you know we got to a place where we can’t pay for this anymore because something else takes priority over that…so I think there might have been some type of negative influence on her to not follow through with things she was involved in because I would always have to take her out of it.” (Susan, Mother 2) It should be noted that following that statement she immediately said, “Wow, that’s a thought”. Then paused for a minute and said, “ you know I have never thought about it in that 70 way. I really had a negative influence on my daughters’ participation”. Promptly following the interview this mother went and found her daughter and just hugged her and apologized to her. “It’s kind of like okay oh we have these bills we got to take of. We’re going to need hot water, so do we need basketball or hot water and hot water is going to always win.” (Michelle, Mother 4) “Right now none of my girls are doing any sports right now. You know when it was time for basketball season my money wasn’t right and you didn’t just want to pay for one and not be able to pay for the other ones and you know what I mean. Therefore, they weren’t able to participate in that. I wanted them to get into basketball but I wasn’t able to save my money and I can’t pay for one, so we weren’t able to do.” (Tamika, Mother 6) It was evident that transportation and a lack thereof was an issue as well, as seen in the statements below. “Transportation issues sometimes because I’m only one person, (single mom) you know what I mean. So if I’m trying to pick up from over here and I have to find out who is going to pick her up and who’s going to take her, so that is really hard.” (Michelle, Mother 4) “Sometimes I don’t want to drive or I don’t want to get up and drive them. One of my daughters is a cheerleader, and at times I tell her your not going to practice today. I say things like I’m tired of this when is cheerleading going to be over. I usually end up taking them because I know it’s good for them even though I complain, but at times it’s tough.” (Shelia, Mother 9) Time. Another subtheme cited by six mothers was the time requirements for participating. Mothers noted time as being a prevalent issue when it came to the amount of time required to transport their daughters to and from practices as well as games. Additionally, mothers whose daughters were highly involved in sports noted that their daughters did not have an adequate amount of time to spend with friends, and sometimes struggled meeting homework demands. “Sometimes she will be wanting to hang with friends, and she can’t because she has to practice or she might have a game, or she might want to go stay the night here and I tell her nope, can’t, ‘cause you gotta practice, you got a game and 71 she’ll be like *sigh* uh what if I just quit, or, can I just not go? Or can I, you know…” (Angela, Mother 1) “The hugest challenge that I deal with is just, um, her schoolwork. You know, making sure that her grades stay high, where I want them to be. While also allowing her to participate in these things, you know. Like for her school, specifically, um, there’s an A and a B team, and she’s on the B team. Her practice doesn’t start until 5:15pm and it’s not over until 7:15pm, so we don’t get home until like eight, ‘cause we’re a school of choice, so we’re out of district so we drive to school. So it’s really a lot. So, when we get home, sometimes we’re not really getting to bed until like ten, if she has a lot of homework, which I don’t like.” (Karin, Mother 3) “She’ll end up staying up ‘til two clock in the morning without me knowing because she had to finish some work. And then she’s really tired the next day and then has to do it all over again. School, practice, games so, not getting to bed, so you know…her time and her schoolwork. But she’s still getting straight A’s so I mean, its, its stress. She has a lot of stress to be 12. Also I don’t think she has time to eat like she should so that’s more stress” (Meredith, Mother 8) Perceived negative feedback. It was made clear that mothers perceived the negative feedback that their daughter received from both parents and peers as a cost related to physical activity and sport participation. “Like it’s kind of like a negativity that comes back towards her from the other kids and parents.” (Angela, Mother 1) “Being good at something, you know she works really hard at it and people don’t always look at it, they just think she is talented and get jealous and say mean things…There are just a lot of politics as my daughter has gotten better and older so you have to be careful with that.” (Meredith, Mother 8) “She’s always played up in everything that she’s done, so you know she’s got parents that are being, she’s got kids that are being mean. And that’s kind of tough.” (Candice, Mother 5) Three mothers noted injury as a potential or a negative consequence of sport and physical activity participation. “A lot of female injuries scare me sometimes, because they’re not trained, and they’re muscle development isn’t—like with the whole ACL injury and stuff like that...” (Candice, Mother 5) 72 “So much stuff that I’m learning, and I wish that I would have known that when she was younger, because we have so many girls that go down with those injuries. So, I get nervous sometimes.” (Karin, Mother 3) Race. Although a majority of mothers did not mention an issue of race, three mothers cited racial issues as being a barrier and went in depth. One mother whose daughter plays soccer at an elite level described her experience as a mother in a sport predominately played by Caucasians. “I think one of the things that has been more of a challenge in the area we live are the racial issues that arise in terms of being a black athlete. They have to have so many white players, you know, so you kind of run into this issue of only so many black players no matter what. I don’t care how good they are, only so many are going to be on the team cause they need to have a mixture of kids, you know. I think that has probably been the most frustrating thing to me.” (Meredith, Mother 8) The other two mothers who cited race as an issue in their daughters’ participation just simply noted their daughters’ experience …“My daughter has experienced some racism in sports and that is hard for me as a mother to accept and then sometimes I find myself jumping to conclusions of racism because of a past experience.” Another when asked about any barriers with her daughter participating in sport whose daughter plays elite soccer a port dominated by whites just simply noted “The racial piece is, in my mind, most frustrating, by far”. Daughter’s Negative outcomes. The daughters’ subthemes for perceived costs were (a) resources, (b) negative feedback, (c) discouraging factors, (d) physical aspects, and (e) social aspects (See Figure 5). Resources. Like the mothers, a subtheme noted by the daughters regarding perceived costs related to sport and physical activity participation was limited resources. Subthemes that 73 emerged were time, no transportation, and lack of money. Limited resources seemed to prevent, limit, or eliminate their participation. “The only negative thing about sports to why I didn’t do it is because I knew every time I got into a sport it would be over soon because my mom wasn’t going to be able to afford it and have to take me out… Now my mom has more money and you know. So my little sister is really focused on the sports and I just didn’t have access to money and now I just really don’t even want to try anymore.” (Courtney, Daughter 2) “I stopped playing sports and then I started getting jobs and just stuff I just really didn’t have time for it and I wanted to make money.” (Honesty, Daughter 12) Negative feedback. Another subtheme noted by four daughters as a cost of participation was negative feedback that the daughters were given from their parents, teammates, and boys. “My dad says that when I play bad games, he used to say that I sucked and that I couldn’t play and I was horrible and stuff like…I might as well just stop and just dance instead ‘cause that’s what I’m good at” (Megan, Daughter 1) “Boys would tell me that I’m not good at [sports] so I might as well just stop. So then I would like give up or I would get mad. ” (Melissa, Daughter 9) “A couple weeks ago I got mad because all these boys had come to my basketball game to see me play and I got really nervous and I played horrible and so then all of them started talking about me and I kind of felt like I wanted to quit but then I just kept going.” (Missy, Daughter 4) Discouraging factors. Another subtheme found from daughters was labeled discouraging factors as girls specifically noted as racism and lack of confidence. Three girls noted experiencing racism either from being treated differently as a player or from being made fun of from racial jokes. Four girls also noted that a lack of confidence sometimes discouraged them from participating at times. “Like when I played for the Candy Canes (basketball team), um, I got sat on the bench, um like, at least 3 or 4 times for like um three quarters like I wouldn’t play like a whole half and I would think it was because of my color.” (Megan, Daughter 1) 74 When asked why she felt it was racism she gave the response, “I was the only one that had to sit out for that long and I was the only one that was Black on the team …”. “I used to play on like all white teams and I was the only black person and they’d kind of make jokes about it.” (Brittany, Daughter 5) “I didn’t know how to play basketball so I didn’t want to” (Melissa, Daughter 9) Injuries. Another subtheme noted by six daughters was physical aspects such as fear of injuries, not liking training or practices, and being tired. Girls made comments such as, “I don’t like that I have to run all the time” or “I tried track one time, (laughing) and for like two days, and I didn’t like it, ‘cause we just run around in circles.” Injuries were also mentioned as a cost as one daughter just simply noted, “I don’t want to play sports because I don’t want to get hurt”. Four daughters noted that the loss of friendships as well as team “drama” and “gossip” were costs with being physically active and participating in sports. “Sometimes I lose friends, because they don’t understand how important basketball is to me, and how I’m always gone.” (Brittany, Daughter 5) “I used to cheerlead and we used be up at Granger and I saw all my other friends. I used to hate I had to be there cheerleading. Because I wanted to be with my friends.” (Megan, Daughter 1) “A lot of drama like gossiping, and people just talking about people behind their back, just bad.” (Courtney, Daughter 2) In summary, it is clear from statements made by both mothers and daughters that there are some negative aspects and possible outcomes to in engaging in physical activity. The negative aspects ranged from a lack of resources, racism, injuries, negative feedback, time constraints, physical aspects, and social issues. It should also be noted that four mothers did note that they perceived no cost or negative outcomes in relation to physical activity and sports participation. 75 Purpose 2: Daughters’ perceived parental influence (support/negative, encouragement/ discouragement) for sport and/or physical activity participation. The second research question examined daughters’ perceived parental influence for their sport and physical activity participation. This question examined how the daughters perceived their mothers’ expectations and influence, how the expectations impact their socialization and participation in sports and physical activity. Analysis of transcripts revealed two main themes, namely, mothers’ expectations and perceptions of mothers support. Each main theme had a number of subthemes that will be discussed in the following text (See Table 7). Table 7. Daughters’ perceived parental influence Daughters’ perceived parental influence Perceptions of Mothers’ Support Mothers Expectations Talks about sports (4) Try different things (4) Encourages me to be active (9) None (2) None Not Quit (3) Give 100% (5) Do their best (4) When daughters were asked if they think their mom expects anything from them in terms of physical activity and sport participation, five subthemes were found. Three daughters mentioned not quit, five said give 100%, four daughters said try different things, six daughters perceived expectations of excellence, and four daughters had no expectations). It should be noted the next four subthemes seemed to stress effort (i.e., not quit, give 100%, try different things, none). Not quit. A clear subtheme mentioned by daughters’ was to “not quit”, daughters made it clear that, if participating, they were not allowed to be a quitter, making statements such as, “she expects me not to be a quitter” or “to just not quit”, and another noted to “go through the season without quitting”. Several daughters spoke specifically about their mothers’ expectation that they would always give 100% or great effort. 76 “She expects me to give 100% in anything that I’m doing.” (Shalane, Daughter 8) “She just wants me to try hard. It doesn’t matter if I lose a game, or um, just anything. She just wants me to try hard.” (Megan, Daughter 1) “Put some effort in it. Like if I choose to do it, but other than that I don’t know. I don’t think that she—and do my best.” (Missy, Daughter 4) Other daughters described their mothers encouragement to be active and to try new sports and activities. “I think she expects me to be active. Like going outside and stuff, and like walking around the neighborhood probably, or something every day.” (Melissa, Daughter 9) “Right now she just wants me to do every sport that I can, ‘cause she wants me to find a sport I really like and stick to it.” (Stephanie, Daughter 3) Two daughters explained that they felt their mother had no expectations for their participation in physical activity or sport participation. One noted, “I would say on a scale from one to ten, probably about a three as she doesn’t expect much from me in terms of physical activity and sports”. The other said “I really don’t think she has any expectations for me.” Expectations. Daughters were asked if they think their mom expects them to excel, or be really good or successful in sport. Six daughters said yes, four said no, and two said they did not really know. Each daughter seemed to have her own definition or interpretation of the word “excel/success”. Daughters’ explanations as to why they felt as though their moms expected them to excel or be successful are presented below starting with those who said yes then those who said no. “Yes because, colleges send me letters so, she gets too excited bouncing off the wall and I’m like mom I’m just a sophomore.” (Brittany, Daughter 5) “Yes cause I’m getting like better at it, I’m getting better at basketball. I’m getting way better to the point where I feel like now I could cross between my legs or go behind my back or dribble with my left hand. I’m very ambidextrous in basketball.” (Megan, Daughter 1) 77 “Yes because every time I played a sport she would always like, she, it’s constructive criticism, like she would always be involved and tell me what I need to do or what she thinks I need to do every time I play the sport.” (Courtney, Daughter 2) “No, not in sports. I think she thinks it’s important that I exercise because she always is getting on me about what I eat and stuff, but I don’t think she cares about me excelling in sports. She would just want me to do a good job.” (Kristen, Daughter 10) “I think she’ll be proud any way, whether I just go to college or whether [I’m] an athlete in college.” (Brittany, Daughter 5) “No because we don’t take it that seriously. Like it’s just an activity, like to play and have fun and stuff.” (Melissa, Daughter 9) The subtheme of Perceived expectations of excellence is interesting as the daughters’ who responded “yes” seem to have a lot of skill or potential to be really good in sport. Daughters’ rationale for why they felt this way seemed to be based on their potential, skill, or the fact that they had already been recruited at an elite level. Whereas others who responded yes gave explanations of why they felt their mom expected them to excel such as, cheers me on, give me feedback, is involved, and made me sign up. It seemed as though half of the respondents who perceived their mom expected them to excel gave explanations because they felt their moms thought they could be successful whereas others gave explanations that fall more along supportive measures. In summary, the majority of daughters noted that their mothers’ expectations for them in physical activity and sport were heavily based on effort except when specifically asked if they thought their mom expected them to excel in sports. Daughters noted that if they were involved they were expected to try their best, not quit, and give 100%. Perception of mothers’ Support. The next subtheme explored how daughters perceive their mothers’ support for them to participate and engage in physical activity and sport. The daughters were asked questions 78 regarding how/if their mom ever encourages or discourages them in physical activity and sport participation. Lastly, daughters were asked about their experiences and if they engage in physical activity or sports with their mothers. Subthemes for perceptions of mothers support were encouragement and role modeling. Encouragement. When asked does your mom encourage you to be active 9 out of the 12 participants said yes and stated reasons why. Two daughters said “no.” One simply stated “no, not really,” and the other who said ‘‘no’’ stated, “no not really, I started playing sports because I wanted to”. Daughters were asked if their mothers ever talked to them about sports and what words or actions they feel their mom gives that has an influence on them in regard to sports and physical activity engagement. Based on the interview comments, mothers’ words of encouragement and support were shown by encouraging words and sharing past sport stories and experiences. “She tells me like I have an option, like I don’t have to do them, but the benefits of them…” (Stephanie, Daughter 3) “I played basketball for the first time this past year and I thought it would be like easier to learn, but it wasn’t. So, then I didn’t really want to do it anymore, but my mom like encouraged me to stay in it and stuff. And she told me that she didn’t care if I quit, but she would be disappointed because she wanted me to finish something that I started. I ended up not quitting.” (Melissa, Daughter 9) “She tells me stories about when she used to play sports, then she tells me what sports she did, and talks about those.” (Brittany, Daughter 5) Daughters were asked if they workout together with their moms. Based on the interview comments, three daughters said yes, four said no, and five noted that they used to or sometimes do. Yes “Usually we go to the gym and workout together in the summer. And a lot during the summer, we’ll run together around the neighborhood. And sometimes well go 79 to, not the gym where you work out, but the gym where you can play basketball. She can help me with my basketball.” (Danielle, Daughter 6) “Yes we do. I know a lot of people don’t do anything with their moms, so I’m thankful that my mom, even though she’s a little out of shape, she’ll still get out there and play with me pretty often.” (Brittany, Daughter 5) Used to/sometimes “We used to go to the Y a long time ago together, but she stopped doing it a long time ago.” (Honesty, Daughter 11) “I think I got older, and I don’t really go out with my mom anymore to do much.” (Courtney, Daughter 2) “Sometimes not really. Sometime like she’ll exercise and do the video. We’ll do it together but not a lot.” (Kristen, Daughter 10) In summary, daughters’ perceptions of their mothers’ support seemed to be positive. The majority of daughters recalled positive experiences and felt nothing but support to participate in physical activity and encouragement while engaged in physical activity and sport participation. Girls recalled times when their mothers encouraged them to get out of the house, go try new things, and stressed benefits of engaging in physical activity. A number of daughters also thought mothers showed they were supportive by talking about their own past sport experiences and attending games. Purpose 3: What are the mothers perceived influences on their daughters’ participation in sport and/or physical activity participation? The third research question examined mothers’ influence on their daughters’ physical activity and sport participation. Analysis of transcripts revealed three main themes, namely, (a) gender differences, (b) mothers’ expectations and (c) mothers’ role. Each main theme had a number of subthemes that will be discussed below. Gender Differences. The first main theme for research question three is gender differences presented below in table 8. Mothers were asked if they thought there were any 80 differences between girls and boys in physical activity and sport. Nine mothers said yes and three said no. Responses are presented below. Table 8. Gender Differences No Equally Important (3) Girls can do what boys can do (2) Yes Schools place higher emphasis (3) Boys are pushed hard (7) Boys are more interested in sports(4) Higher expectation for boys (7) Girls not as valued (3) Boys are more competitive (2) “I think physical activity is more important for boys…If my daughter chose that she just wanted to get straight A’s in school right now, I would be okay with that, if she wanted to quit anything. But if he (her son) said that to me we would have a problem…if my son said, I don’t wanna do nothing, I just want to get straight A’s like my sister, I would be mad and wouldn’t let him. He’s a boy, he has to do something. He’s not just going to sit around and be lazy” (Angela, Mother 1) “I think that people definitely push boys a lot harder, athletically, and in like team sports, you know, football and stuff…I think that’s just the sexist attitude or mentality, like a girl can’t be as good as a boy, so they won’t push them as hard…. I definitely feel like they do. I push girls as hard as they push boys.”(Lindsey, Mother 7) “I’m going to push my son to do everything. I want him to box, play football, play basketball, all that. My girls not so much. When asked why, the mother said honestly, “I don’t know, he is a boy.” (Michelle, Mother 4) “I think that society expects boys to participate in sports. But girls, uhh you can if you want to, you know, for girls. But for boys, they’re expected to be on the basketball team, they’re expected to play football, and they’re expected to be good at it. Girls, not so much.” (Candaice, Mother 5) When mothers were asked why they thought there were gender differences in sports expectations, responses ranged from a lack of future opportunities to being perceived as a lesbian. “I think sometimes what’s the point of me pushing her to do this (sport) if you know, you can play when you’re in college and after that you don’t have nothing else for you to do. You need to focus on something else… It seems like it’s more opportunities for males than it is for females.” (Cathy, Mother 10) 81 “You know I find that as far as like girls in sports, they’re not always as valued— that the sports aren’t always as valued as they are for boys in sports so like those opportunities aren’t there…..So it’s like, my daughter is having to go to her athletic director and say like you know I’m not learning, you know we don’t get the same amount of time as the boys do. So, you know, we’ve had to fight for her to get equal rights.” (Candice, Mother 5) “I think, I want to believe that they both have the same opportunities. But I think they don’t. I don’t. I think, uh, sports wise he (her son) would have a better opportunity making it in life than my daughter would as far as sports wise. Now, uh, school and stuff I feel like my daughter would be able to have a better opportunity in life doing that, so yeah, I would- if I had to push, if I had to, then yeah I would push him differently than I do my daughter. Just because, that’s just how I think.” (Michelle, Mother 4) “I think that there is a lot of negativity and some connotations that are put on girls that aren’t put on boys, and if you are a boy and you are an athlete then you’re manly, you know. And if you’re a girl and you’re an athlete then you’re manly. You know, and I just think that that’s crazy. Why can’t you just be feminine and just be a really good athlete.” (Karin, Mother 3) I then asked Karin if she felt that still exist today and she answered… “Definitely! Definitely, I mean, I even feel slightly self-conscious. I still play sports, I play co-ed and I feel like when I wear my bandana, my Oakley’s and I have on my softball gear, um people don’t really look at me as a girly girl, they look at me as more like a player. So, it’s even worse if you’re a good player, you know, so that’s—I’m a little self-conscious about myself in that. You know, I feel like people might kind of look at me like I might be gay when I play” … I think that there’s a lot of bad stigma associated with women athletes, like um, society kind of says that you’re a tom boy, or you’re not girly enough if you’re an athlete. I think that a lot of people kind of push this bad notion…. And I think that it’s even worse now than when I was growing up, because when I was growing up, um, the gay and lesbian lifestyle was kind of like real hush hush. You could be a tom boy and people didn’t assume anything. If you were a great athlete people might call you a tom boy, but they just didn’t necessarily say you were gay unless you acted and dressed like a boy in school. I think it discourages girls from becoming serious competitors.” (Karin, Mother 3) Three mothers responded “no” to there being any differences between girls and boys in physical activity and sport. The three mothers who said no there is no difference in boys and girls participation focused on “importance” and “skill”. They said no to the questions but their 82 responses were “no, there is not a difference, it is equally important for girls as it is boys” and the other mom said “no, I do not see a difference as girls can do what boys can do” The majority of mothers thought there was a difference in boys and girls sport participation, but the majority of the difference came from societal standards, of pushing, encouraging, and expecting more from boys. Two mothers did admit that they place higher expectations on their sons to be involved in sports and would push and encourage them more than their daughters. Mothers also mentioned that girls are often less valued in sport participation compared to boys and two mothers indicated the possible negative stereotypes such as being a tomboy or being considered a lesbian or gay that could come from being a competitive athlete. Mothers Expectations. The second main theme for research question three is Mothers expectations. Mothers were asked to describe the expectations they have for their daughter with respect to physical activity and sport. Nine mothers noted they expect their child to “give their best,” seven moms said they expect their daughter to not give up, two mothers noted they have no expectations, and to just be active was noted by six mothers. Responses are presented below. “I tell her that all the time. You’re not going to get on this team and have to do anything; you’re going to do it to the best of your ability. As long as I know that you’re doing it to the best of your ability, you don’t have to be an all-star, you don’t have to be the best player on the team, but you have to be giving everything that you have, or you can sit down somewhere. That’s just how I feel about it.” (Karin, Mother 3) “My expectation is, whatever they chose to do, just make sure you always put your best foot forward. Don’t half step, that’s all I ask, that’s my only expectations of them.” (Shelia, Mother 9) “If you’re going to do something, do it right. Don’t be half about doing it. And that’s pretty much [it].” (Ruth, Mother 11) “If you going to do something, follow through with it. Don’t give up, don’t quit. Once you’re in it you’re in it. And if you know you don’t like it, that’s too bad you’re going finish it.” (Susan, Mother 2) 83 “I don’t. I mean I don’t expect her to play any sport. I have never pushed my child to, you know, you need to be, well that’s not true. I expect my children to do something or some type of extracurricular activity while they are in school. So whether it’s in sports or whether it’s in the drama club or whether it’s whatever it is. I expect them to be doing something. I would prefer them to be doing something other than just going to school and coming home than you know hanging with friends.” (Lauren, Mother 12) “If it was something that she wanted to do, I would, but I actually had to push her to be active. So, since it wasn’t that important to her, it wasn’t to me.” (Lindsey, Mother 7) “Well I expect her to get exercise for her physical health. And just for her mental health too. So I don’t push her because I think physically she’s pretty healthy weight-wise and pretty agile, she can move around. I guess I don’t see a real detriment to physical health so I don’t really push it that much. But I do enforce getting up and moving around and being active. So my role is to just kind of look at her physically and need to get moving and do something.” (Cathy, Mother 10) In summary, it was clear that parents’ had expectation for their daughters’ engagement in physical activity and sport. The majority of mothers expected their daughters to engage in physical activity and sports. Mothers clearly emphasized effort in their expectations mentioning subthemes such as do not quit/follow though, give their best, and just be active. No mother mentioned they expect skill or talent or for their daughter to excel in a sport. Mother’s Role. The third main theme for research question three is Mother’s Role. Mothers were asked to describe their role in their daughters’ physical activity and sport participation. Subthemes found were providing encouragement (in various ways to be discussed), lead by example, and provide resources such as sporting equipment and sport lessons. Responses are presented below. “You know I’m not good at dribbling no ball, and running to a hoop at the same time but I want her to know that I’m there, like whatever you choose to do, I got your back. Whether I like it or not, you know I’m there.” (Karin, Mother 2) “I tell her to go out an do/try a lot of things… I always tell her she can, she complains all the time… You always tell me to go do something!” (Sheila, Mother 9) 84 “I think that you should push a little bit, and not to the point where you’re stressing your kids out, but just enough to see if they will rise to the occasion.” (Meredith, Mother 8) Two mothers described how they provide emotional support for their daughters. “Emotionally I’m there to listen and kind of the ups and the downs and the cries and the frustrations, and so I’m really there for her for the emotional piece.” (Meredith, Mother 8) “Support, um emotionally, physically, and just kind of uhh, and be there for her. You know, as much as I can, financially, but really emotionally for her. You know like her dad, her dad is an athlete so they do the physical stuff, and I probably need to get better at it. I’ve kind of fallen off the physical piece.” (Candice, Mother 4) Mothers also noted the importance of their being a role model for their daughters. “As a parent I am supposed to uh make sure that I am setting a good example myself, that’s why I joined the gym. Because kids learn by example, so uh my role as far as, if we’re talking about physical activity is to set a good example by also being physically active myself, and leading by example. I think that’s what my role is as a parent. You know you can talk, but you know actions speak louder than words. “ (Ruth, Mother 11) “I used to believe it was being a role model in terms of actually being active myself and when they were young it was.” (Susan, Mother 2) “I am really trying to become a better role model for both of my daughters. It’s hard to say go exercise when I won’t do it myself.” (Shelia, Mother 9) Several mothers talked about the need to provide resources for their daughters to participate in sport or physical activity. “I give her everything that I can to make her successful. So, when she started playing volleyball, I immediately bought her a volleyball so she could go—and we’d go outside and we’d set. I’d help her set, I’d help with her serve, and we went to the playground and we played. There wasn’t a volleyball net, but we played like the swings were the net, and to help her learn to get the ball over and everything”. (Karin, Mother 3) 85 “You know I believe I have the same responsibility for her physical activity as I do for her academic development, spiritual development now.” (Cathy, Mother 10) “I make myself accessible and available, you know, whatever I have to do you know I try to make it happen. I have never told them, well, no you can’t play that or you can’t participate in that because I don’t have the money. I try to make it happen.” (Michelle, Mother 4) In summary, it was clear that parents believed their behaviors play a role in their daughters’ participation in physical activity and sport. Mothers believed their role was to provide words of encouragement and emotional support. Mothers’ also believed it was important to lead by example and be a role model by engaging in physical activity themselves. Lastly, parents believed they are to provide financial support along with providing transportation to and from practices, and lastly, providing daughters with the needed equipment to engage in their sport activities. Purpose 4: Sport/Physical Activities Considered to be Culturally Appropriate/Appealing by Mothers and Daughters The final research question was intended to examine whether or not African American mothers and daughters perceived any sports and physical activities to be more culturally appealing, and if they do, to describe examples of these activities and provide explanations as to why. Table 9. Cultural Appropriate/Appealing Activities for Mothers and Daughters Mothers Daughters Influence of Stereotypes Appropriate/Appealing Black Sports Vs. White Sports Not Appropriate/Appealing Appealing Characteristics Characteristics Mothers’ Perceptions of Culturally Appropriate Activities 86 Influence of stereotypes. Findings revealed that a major factor influencing perceptions of appealing activities in mothers’ views were cultural stereotypes and acceptance. Ten mothers mentioned stereotypes. It was found that there are certain sports that are seen as “white sports”, such as swimming, hockey, lacrosse, tennis, golf, soccer, and archery. A number of quotes were found related to this question. Below are a few. “I do think that there are certain sports that tend to attract certain people, attract majority of the community. Tennis, golf, swimming, archery seem to be sports you don’t see a lot of us (Blacks) in.” (Shelia, Mother 9) “Swimming, I don’t know too many black people that can swim.(laughter) So I mean, I was just like dang okay, you look back in your family and like, can you swim? No. Can you swim? No. Can you swim? No. Oh well I guess there’s not too many black folks that can swim.” (Michelle, Mother 4) Sports that mothers noted as being seen as sports Black people play were track (10), basketball (11), volleyball (5), and football (8). A number of quotes were found related to sports Black people play. Below are a few. “Well probably the stereotype track, basketball, you know that you would feel more comfortable with” (Tamika, Mother 6) “Without a doubt there are certain things we (Blacks) are going to play. Basketball you know, in terms of African American cause it’s in our community. It’s in our parents, our siblings and it’s something we’ve always understood we’re better at it than most. I think the NBA is just a telling thing of that.” (Michelle, Mother 4) It should also be noted that although mothers admitted that stereotypes do play a role, a few mothers did note they do not think they should or they do not let it affect them. For example, one mother said, “I mean of course there’s stereotypes, but I don’t let society dictate how I feel about it.” Another mother said, “Does society have stereotypes? Yeah, they do. I don’t fall into that—they think uh-black boys, basketball is for the black boys, or swimming is for white boys. 87 Golf is for Whites, I don’t fall into that. I think uh Tiger Woods showed us, you know, you understand that, no.” Characteristics. When respondents were asked why they felt certain sports were White sports and certain sports were Black sports, characteristics came out such as financial (being too expensive), things that were not common in the Black community such as role models, other peers being involved, and, lastly, characteristics that seemed to be avoided were quiet sports such as golf and tennis and more low risk activities. Financial concerns were described by Meredith. “We don’t have a bunch of us that do things quite honestly that are expensive you know in terms of everything that requires equipment and all that kind of stuff you know. Like lacrosse, you don’t see that in our community. For example, my daughter, you’re playing soccer and there’s just not a lot of black girls that play so everyone of her teammates now there are there’s one in her high school who’s African and her and there is one who’s a mixed young lady.” (Meredith, Mother 8) Another characteristic related to role models and history of participation. “I really think that with the Michael Jordan’s, with the Wilt Chamberlin’s, with all of those people that came through in the late 60’s and 70’s, it was really a heavy emphasis on baseball that was kind of like the sport. And then it transitioned to oh black people are good basketball players too, and then it’s just like they just go from one trend to the next” (Cathy, Mother 10) “You don’t want to be the odd duck. You want people on the team to relate to you. You know their lifestyle is somewhat like yours versus you know sometimes just talking to someone that’s not your race.” (Shelia, Mother 9) “I tried to get her to do something different, but since that’s what she’s seen from her family, like oh my dad played basketball, my auntie played basketball, you know it was like, I’m gonna do those ones. They just so happened to be, majority black people did that, but I’m not- I don’t push her towards those things. I’d rather have her do everything so we don’t have that, but she chose what she chose.” (Angela, Mother 1) An interesting view of culturally appropriate sports related to the loudness or quietness of the participants during the games. One particularly salient view was expressed by Meredith. 88 “You don’t see a lot of us (Blacks) in a lot of sports where you have to be quiet …it’s like tennis like why can’t you talk if you’re hitting a tennis ball? My husband always says that you know part of being a good athlete is doing something in spite of the noise. But a lot of the sports that we don’t lend ourselves to as well, golf, you can’t talk while they are hitting this little ball. In terms of things it’s like part of the challenge of being excellent is to block that out.” (Meredith, Mother 8) She then went on to explain why some sports such as basketball may be appealing and mentioned “trash talking” …“in terms of the trash talking that goes with the basketball and football and things…. part of the game in our culture is trash talking just fun talk…There is a culture going around certain sports and us (Blacks) playing those sport.” (Meredith, Mother 8) One mother when asked the question gave a quick story for her response. “So I would say, yes there are a lot of things. For instance, I was at one of my daughters’ basketball practices and on the other side of the gym was a roller derby team that was all women, though there were no black women on the team. So, one of my daughters went over there and was like mom I would like to do something like that and I was like I would like to do something like that too. But in my mind I don’t know about her (daughters) mind but in my mind I’m kind of like you know I would look a fool doing that. You know I was thinking I would be the only black person on the team and you know white people are crazy. Cause you’re really there is a lot of contact and you’re hurting yourself. So, do I really want to take that chance and risk to do something like that. I think sometimes in certain sports white people can be a little bit more adventurous than a black person would be. So yeah I do think there are some differences.” (Susan, Mother 2) In summary, culturally appealing activities in African American mothers’ view are perceived to be existent because of stereotypes, issues of affordability, being a low-risk activity, having role models, peer involvement, and having a history of African American participation all contribute to the explanation of culturally appealing activities. Daughters’ perceptions on appealing activities Daughters were asked, “Are there any activities that you think appeal more or less to African American girls?” Findings revealed the major subthemes most appropriate (appealing) 89 as every single daughter noted basketball as appealing and track by all but one. The next subtheme found was simply appropriate, as four daughters each identified gymnastics, volleyball, and dance/cheerleading. Daughters identified cheerleading as “becoming more of a Black sport because some schools don’t have dance teams only cheer so it’s going that way now”. The final subtheme not appropriate, 10 daughters identified soccer as not appealing. Even the respondent who is an elite soccer player noted that soccer was not appealing for Black girls. It should be noted no probes were used as the daughters just said soccer. A number of quotes were found related to this question. Below are a few. When daughters were asked why they felt this way about certain activities characteristics came out such as fear, current natural talents and abilities, and lastly, sports that were common in the Black community such as role models and other peers being involved. The issue of fear of failure was mentioned as a consideration of appropriate sports or activities. “Black girls are scared to try something different because you see like soccer or lacrosse; you see white girls playing that and you see black girls just doing dance team, playing basketball, or running track. It’s something different and you don’t see a black girl doing it. So I feel like you’ll be scared if they’ll fail or the white girls will be better and the coach won’t put them in the game because they are new at it. But we already know how to play basketball and dance.” (Courtney, Daughter 2) Another consideration was related to sports where Blacks have natural skills. “I feel like black people have more rhythm, which is why, and they are more, I’m not gonna say more creative, but they have more of, like on. Okay, as far as a dance team and then on like a basketball team now a days you’re seeing more black girls play basketball. I’m not saying white girls can’t play basketball, but you just see more black girls playing basketball and running track so you just think we are better at it.” (Kristen, Daughter 10) “I just think we’re better at basketball, gymnastics, and cheer! I don’t know. It’s just I see so many black people playing in those sports, and I just thought we must be better.” (Melissa, Daughter 9) 90 A few girls rejected the cultural appropriateness of sport and physical activity. Rather, they focused on the availability of peers or role models engaging in the sport. “I don’t really think it’s much of the cultural characteristics. I just think other girls see black girls like doing track or basketball, and they want to do it to. Like you really don’t see black girls playing soccer. And I feel like it’s more of an um an appearance thing too….like if I’m if I was about to tryout for soccer and I make it, I know I’m going to be the only black girl on the team.” (Missy, Daughter 4) “I keep telling people I want to play soccer and they keep asking me why, because they think I can’t play soccer because it’s a white person sport. My friend just the other day said it was a white person’s sport because there are no black girls on the team.” (Courtney, Daughter 2) “Now a days you’re seeing more black girl play basketball. I’m not saying white girls can’t play basketball, but you just see more black girls playing basketball and running track.” (Stephanie, Daughter 3) In summary, culturally appealing activities in African American adolescent daughters’ view are perceived to be existent because girls are often scared to try something different, or feel that they have natural skills in basketball and track. Lastly, it is clear that these respondents wanted to do things where they felt other Blacks would be participating, as respondents did not want to be the minority on the sports team. All these characteristics contribute to the explanation of culturally appealing activities. Chapter Summary The findings detailed in this chapter describe the experiences of African American women and their adolescent daughters in their own voices. Values as well as cost to sport participation and physical activity for African American adolescents were found. Mothers and daughters are motivated and noted a plethora of reasons to participate in sports and physical activity but costs associated with participation such as the need for financial resources, a lack of competence in different sport skills, perceptions of boys and sometimes issues of race are often 91 discouraging. Lastly, changing the community perception of girls in sport is a critical need in the African American community. In the next chapter, the researcher summarizes the study, draws conclusions, discusses the implications of the study, discusses the practical implications of the findings and offers recommendations. 92 CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION This study was designed to determine African American mothers’ influences on their daughters’ sport and physical activity participation. Sport participation can be seen as an achievement domain. Using qualitative research (individual interviews), the researcher sought to explore participants, thoughts, opinions, and perceptions of the value of physical activity and sport participation. Mothers shared their opinions about their perceived influence and expectations they had for their daughters’ sport and physical activity experience. Daughters shared their general beliefs regarding their mothers’ influence for their sport and physical activity participation. Lastly, both mothers and daughters shared their perceptions of the cultural appropriateness and appeal of sports. This segment of the discussion will revisit research questions, and the main themes of the data. In this section, the researcher will synthesize and discuss the findings in the context of existing literature and the lens of Eccles’ Expectancy Value Theory and Eccles’ comprehensive model of parental influences on children’s motivation and achievement. The following issues will be addressed in this section: (1) types of value mothers and daughters place on sport and physical activity, (2) daughters’ perceived parental influence, (3) mothers influence on their daughters’ participation in sport and/or physical activity participation, and (4) sports/physical activities considered to be culturally appealing. Types of value mothers and daughters place on sport and physical activity Beliefs about the values associated with tasks in various achievement domains can be conceptualized according to the perceived importance that parents attach to those tasks. For instance, based on value placed on achievement in a given domain, a parent may communicate 93 that success in athletics is more important than achievement in school, making parents more likely to give more encouragement and opportunities for children to partake in sports. Therefore, mothers and daughters in the current study were asked questions that allowed the researcher to explore the value they placed on sport and physical activity for their daughters. A relevant theory relative to value is Eccles Expectancy Value model that proposes that parents’ belief system contributes to the child’s activity motivation and is based upon the assumption that children develop expectancies and values comparable to those of their parents (Eccles et al., 1998). The expectancy-value theory postulates that motivation can be achieved when perceived values outweigh any perceived cost (Eccels & Wigfield, 1995). Responses from the participants were found to be supportive of Eccles’ expectancy-value model (Eccles, 1993). There are four types of value outlined in the model (interest, utility, attainment, and cost). No matter the mothers’ physical activity level or daughters’ sport or physical activity participation, the data analysis revealed that all participants found some type of value in sport and physical activity participation, with each fitting into the four types of values identified by Eccles & Harold (1991). Interest value. Interest value is referred to as the enjoyment one feels when doing the task, also known as the immediate intrinsic and extrinsic results received from participating in an activity (Eccles & Harold, 1991). When it came to interest value it was clear that mothers believed that sport involvement gives one an opportunity to not only be around current friends but the chance to make new friends which they thought their daughters would enjoy. The daughters also mentioned that the opportunity to spend time with current friends and make new friends was of high interest to them. It is also important to note that a majority of the daughters noted that having fun and enjoyment was also of interest to them. This is not that surprising as 94 we know from the classic Ewing and Seefeldt (1992) study that the pivotal reason for participating in sports is because children want to have fun. Attainment value. Eccles and colleagues conceptualized attainment value in terms of the needs, personal interests, and personal values that an activity fulfills. Attainment value is defined as whether or not an activity is consistent with an individual’s self image of whom they are or who they would like to be. If being a good student and doing well in school is a crucial part of one’s self image, then the person would place a higher value on investing time and doing well in school than other activities and interest because doing well in school has a high attainment value (Eccles & Harold, 1991). It was evident that both mothers’ and daughters clearly identified attainment values from sport and physical activity participation, as this was one of the strongest subthemes with 11 out of the 12 mothers listing a number of psychological benefits. The subthemes from psychological benefits from the mothers were able to be identified into categories already defined in the literature; (a) self-confidence- defined as an individual’s perceptions of his or her abilities (Lox, Martin, Ginins, & Petruzzello, 2006), (b) self- esteem- the evaluative or affective consequence of the way in which we see or define ourselves (Lox, Martin Ginins, & Petruzzello, 2006), and (c) mentally tough- usually referring to a number of attributes that allow a person to persevere through difficult circumstances. It was clear that regardless of whether or not their daughters participated in sports or physical activity mothers recognized the psychological benefits of sport and physical activity in enhancing their daughters’ confidence, esteem, and making them mentally stronger. The positive effects of sport participation on girls’ self-esteem have been supported in the literature (Tiggemann, 2001; Yin & Moore, 2004). Daughters affiliated some type of attainment value to 95 sport and physical activity. Eight daughters noted sport and physical activity were very important and daughters also noted the value of learning specific sports skills from participation can be good too. It is important to note that adolescent girls find value in learning actual sport skills as this may be something that needs to be addressed in future interventions and emphasized when developing a program for girls. It may also be of value to introduce new sports to African American girls such as soccer and or lacrosse in hopes of exposing them to a variety of activities and assist in building competence. Utility value. Utility value is determined by how well a task fits into an individual’s goals and plans (i.e., will the activity help in meeting their short or long-term goals). For example, if high school athletes are planning to play division one basketball, then mastering basketball and practicing night and day, and going to summer camps will have high utility value because it will allow them to be better prepared to play division one basketball. If they do not value this, then doing the work necessary to be successful may be too low to motivate them. Based on the interview comments, utility value was the most dominant subtheme as all 24 participants attributed utility value to sport and physical activity participation. Data from the interviews indicated that both mothers and daughters whether active or inactive all exhibit an understanding of not only health benefits of physical activity/exercise, but also the life skills that are learned from participation as well as the chance for future opportunities available if one stay involved in sport, particularly for boys. Health and appearance was a subtheme for both the mothers and daughters. This was a bit surprising as past literature, has cited Black girls do not view weight as a health problem (Alleyene & LaPoint, 2004: Ciccomascolo & Grossi, 2008). We also know that that having a “big body” is also tied to the social construction of African American womanhood (Hill, 2009). I 96 found this interesting though as both the mothers and daughters noted sport and physical activity as a benefit especially to appearance and the daughters were clear in noting an important benefit of sport participation was “keeping ones weight down”. It could be that this view is changing with the times, especially with younger girls. In the past, terms such as phat, big boned, healthy, thick, and brick house, and this physique was “marketed, standardized, institutionalized, and celebrated” (Alleyene & LaPoint, 2004, pg 348) in the African American community. This unique African American view of physique could begin to change for this generation with daughters and mothers making statements along the lines of “keeping weight down” and “staying in shape” and exercise helping with appearance where in the past it had been noted by some to hinder ones physique and appearance it. Mothers also cited that being involved in sports helps in life skills outside of sport. Mothers said sports and physical activity could assist in occupying their daughters’ time, which may help with staying out of trouble. It was evident that mothers felt the less unsupervised time their daughters had available to them, the better chance they would avoid negative situations and behaviors. Another frequent subtheme from mothers were life skills, as 11 out of the 12 mothers mentioned the benefits of life skills, such as leadership, character, teaching teamwork, learning how to prioritize, and help in staying focused mainly in the academic setting. Previous literature showed that sports participation is positively correlated with African American girls’ possessing explicit plans to complete high school and attend college (Hawkins & Mulkey, 2005). It was clear that both mothers and daughters believed in the utility value from sport participation through life skills. 97 With respect to utility value, both Mothers and Daughters cited the possibilities of future opportunities that could be gained from participation such as college scholarships, the benefit of adding your participation on one’s college application. Lastly, daughters noted the possibility of lifelong sport participation. Girls noted that if they participated and knew how to do a particular sport or exercise regimen, they would be more likely to do it as they got older. This goes along with past research that shows that the adolescent years are fundamental in the development of lifelong physical activity (Bush, Leenders, & O’Sullivan, 2004) and that involvement in sport programs during the adolescent years may increase the likelihood of engaging in a high level of physical activity in adulthood (Tammelin, Nayha, Hills, & Jarvelin, 2003). Also, it was clear that even non-participants, both mothers and daughters, know and find value in sport participation but some just choose not to do it. Perceived cost. The last but with equivalence importance type of value in the framework is known as cost (Eccles & Harold, 1991). Cost may be a perceived consequence from participating in an activity, e.g., fear of failure, difficulties, or lost opportunities from choosing one activity over another (Wigfield, 1994). Cost is the opposite of the other values mentioned because it counters the other three positive aspects. However, it needs to be included when using Eccles’ expectancy value approach because the expectancy-value motivation theory notes that the perceived values must override perceived cost. Thus, it was important to explore. Based on the Mothers’ comments, cost was characterized by a few different issues, namely, a lack of resources (transportation and finances), racial issues, time, mean parents/peers, and injuries. Transportation was one important challenge that was made clear by the majority of single women as being an immense cost in having their children participate in sports. Single mothers (n = 6) continually noted that it is a tremendous struggle in being the only parent able to provide 98 transportation to and from practices. Additionally, single mothers of active and non active daughters overtly expressed that financial issues continually arise as a barrier to their daughter’s sport participation, as one mother simply put it, “It’s kind of like okay we have these bills we got to take care of, we’re going to need hot water, so do we need basketball or hot water and hot water is going to always win”. It was single mothers with multiple children who emphasized finances as being a barrier. Single mothers with multiple children also noted that it is a financial struggle because at times you cannot afford to have all the children participate, so, to be fair, no one can do it. Another subtheme that was not mentioned by a majority of mothers, as only three noted it as a cost but the researcher found interesting, was the racial issue that was experienced from participation in sport. Mothers noted the negativity of their daughters’ race as being a relevant cost. The one mother who spoke strongly on this issue was the mother of a daughter who plays elite soccer and shared a couple different stories when she and her daughter have had to deal with racism and being the only African American on the team. Racism and perceptions of racism in sport needs further exploration not just for African American girls but for all girls in sport. For example, are these feelings existent for the one White girl or one Hispanic and her mother on a basketball team? Race should not be a limiting factor for anyone; if racism is prevalent, coaches have to know how to affectively address the issue. Coaches need to be taught and become comfortable in acknowledging and talking about race on their teams. Another prevalent subtheme of cost was found to be time, mothers expressed concerns that sports consume a large amount of time. It was the mothers of daughters who were actively involved in sports that thoroughly emphasized time constraints as being a significant cost from sport participation. Mothers stressed that these time demands often got in the way of their 99 daughter’s academics, eating habits, and sleep. It is important to note that although mothers of daughters who participated in sports mentioned time as being a cost, it was not mentioned or perceived as a salient barrier as the mothers and their daughters learned how to successfully develop their time management skills. It should also be noted that some mothers perceived this cost could actually turn into a benefit later on in life because it teaches time management skills and often does not leave their daughter with much time to spare. A few mothers noted that having little spare time could actually be a good thing because the less time they have, the less opportunity they have to get into something they have no business getting into. Previous literature shows that sports participation is positively correlated with African American girls’ possessing explicit plans to complete high school and attend college (Hawkins & Mulkey, 2005). This could be because of the life skills that being involved with sports entails as mothers above mentioned, time management skills, learning how to do less with more, and keeping busy to stay out of trouble. Lastly, mothers and daughters mentioned negative feedback that the daughter received and experienced from both parents and peers as a cost related to physical activity and sport participation. One Mother told the story of her daughter being an elite basketball player and just all the negativity that has come with it as her daughter has risen to the top. She noted she expected some negativity from her daughter’s peers and friends but not from parents. Often time parents say negative things to her and make her feel bad for her work ethic and talents. When it came to the mothers’ perceived cost of sport and physical activity participation, a number of mothers also mentioned resources but more so emphasized “limited” resources in the form of time, transportation, and financial cost. It was clear that the lack of transportation was an issue as analysis showed that for the daughters who mentioned transportation as an issue their 100 mothers did as well. It was a clear between dyad theme. Secondly, a lack of money was presented by a few. As one daughter said she knew once she got into a sport she would be taken out due to financial issues. It was also mentioned that one daughter stopped playing sports to get a job. It would be interesting to further explore financial issues and the need to work, as it may be a reason why some African American girls do not participate in sports and physical activity especially as they get older. Daughters may see the financial stress their family is going through. It seemed as though those living in a single parent household were almost afraid to ask their mom to enroll them in an activity and or to make it a priority. As one mother so simply stated, we have gas bills, rent, all utilities, and rent/bills are always going to win over sport participation fee. Another subtheme noted as a cost to sport and physical activity participation by six daughters was labeled physical aspects where daughters mentioned things such as fear of injuries, not liking training or practices, and being tired. Only two daughters’ mentioned injury as being a cost, which goes against past research which has shown that girls most commonly cite injury as a negative aspect of physical activity involvement (Grieser et al., 2006). Nonparticipants noted a cost of training as being an issue specifically noting that “running” was a barrier in just not wanting to do it or not enjoying it. This is not surprising as later we will see that these girls noted basketball and track as being the most culturally appealing sports and those do involve a lot of running during practice and game time. Could it be that if we exposé these girls to more aerobic activity that incorporate dance or total body movements, they would be more willing to participate? We know that fun is what children cite as the top reason for being involved in sport and a lack of it causes youth to drop out (Ewing & Seefeldt, 1992). 101 Lastly, daughters cited three main issues within the cost. The first emphasized negative comments from boys. One daughter noted, “Boys would tell me that I’m not good at [sports], so I might as well just stop. So then I would like give up or I would get mad ”. Another daughter cited that sometimes she does not want to play sports because of the way she may be perceived by boys. It should be noted that the girls who brought up this issue of worrying about boy’s perceptions were both older. Past research by Vu et al. (2006) found that with regard to perceptions of physically active girls, girls have positive reactions to active girls. Data from boys though did describe active girls as “tomboys” and girls who played sports as too aggressive. The authors found that boys seemed to be uncomfortable with girls who were active. Boys were quoted saying, “that’s disgusting,” and “that nasty ” when referring to physically active girls who sweat. Research should continue to explore boys and their perceptions of female athletes. Specifically, I would recommend exploring this topic across races to determine if this issue is only prevalent among African American girls and boys. Another discouraging factor that was categorized as a cost was racial issues. Daughters noted racial issues by giving examples of team jokes that were made about them or the Black players. Two daughters said they experienced racism when it came to a lack of playing time when both she and her parents felt she was better than most players on the team but was found on the bench more often than not. It is relatively easy to point out racism when team jokes are deliberately being made to you or about you. Race becomes more of a grey area when it comes to a lack of playing time, as being a youth sports coach myself playing time is usually a common concern of all parents, no matter the skin color, and most parents think their child deserves to be playing or is greater than they really are. It could be that any parents’ view of the ability of their child is different than the coaches’ view and a parent could assume it is race. As noted earlier in 102 the discussion this is why coaches have to become more comfortable in acknowledging and talking about race on their teams. While its important to note the costs that were identified by the participants, it is also intriguing to note the costs that were not found as factors identified influencing participation in sports and physical activity. Previous research has shown that the main barriers identified for African American women include the social and physical environment, care giving/family responsibility roles, hair type, time, cost, enjoyment, and embarrassment (Carter-Nolan, AdamsCampbell, & Williams, 1996; Fleury & Lee, 2006). Although many of these barriers came out in the present study interviews, one that was not mentioned was the hair issue. Not one mother or daughter noted hair being an issue. Past studies have noted hair as being a major barrier to African American women but this was not brought up in the research by any of the 24 participants. It would be interesting to further explore this topic as one explanation for this not coming up could be because we were asking women what the costs were for their daughters and daughters what they felt some of the costs/barriers for their participation. It may be that the hair issue is not prevalent to adolescents but only older African Americans, as we only asked mothers and daughters about daughters’ barriers to participation mothers’ barriers were not explored. It could also be that the participants’ in this study were more affluent and could afford hairstyles. Lastly another factor that could affect this issue was that the daughters’ who had low levels of physical activity or who were not involved in sport did not have to address this issue because it is not a factor. Eccles and colleagues (1998) argued that the perceived value contributes to the decision to participate, amount of effort exerted, persistence, and the level of performance in an achievement domain, in this case being successful in sport and or physical activity. In summary, 103 mothers and daughters seem to know that sport and physical activity participation has a plethora of psychological, social, and physiological benefits. Mothers and daughters identified values that could be classified as utility, attainment, interest, as well as some perceived cost but it was clear that for everyone the benefits outweigh the cost. Although the perceived benefits and negative outcomes of sport and physical activity participation are similar for both those who participate and those who do not; there are differences in the daughters’ participation rate. There were no data to demonstrate that certain aspects of value may be more salient to mothers of physically active daughters and daughters who are active compared to those who are not. Daughters’ perceived parental influence We know that parents represent central socializing influences in the lives of most children and adolescents. Additionally, parents’ influence is important in physical activity and sport socialization of children (Yang, Telama, & Laakso, 1996); Bauer et al., (2008); Madsen et al., (2009). With that being noted the researcher sought to explore how African American daughters perceived their mothers’ influence by asking questions that explored the daughters’ perception of their mothers’ expectations for their participation and their perception of their mothers’ support and or discouragement of their participation in sports and physical activity. Analyses revealed that daughters perceived expectations were similar to the things that the mother expected. Daughters perceived expectations’ were Give 100%, Not Quit, Try different things and some said None. Mothers identified similar themes in noting Give their best, Don’t Quit, Just be active and none as well. Subthemes found from daughters’ in regards to their mothers’ expectations were that daughters noted that mothers expected they were not to quit, and continually give 100%. A few daughters noted that they thought their mother expected them to try different things. The two 104 daughters that noted their mothers had no expectations with regards to sport and physical activity were inactive and not participating in any sports. Most daughters did not feel their mothers expected them to be very good or successful in sports but more so emphasized effort. Even the elite basketball player said, “If I wasn’t as good as I am today, I still think my mom would be my biggest fan”. Daughters did not feel their mother expected them to excel or be the greatest but did stress effort and always giving their best. Participants from Gould et al.’s (2002) study were 10 Olympic champions along with their coaches and a significant other usually a parent were interviewed suggest that the family environment did not place undo pressure on the athlete, and that instead it provided unconditional support and love. This seems to be the case in this study with the mothers emphasizing effort and putting one’s best foot forward instead of relying on and emphasizing talent. Another topic covered in trying to get the daughters’ perspective on the influence of their mother was the perceptions of their support. Most daughters noted they feel their mothers’ encourage them, by words, such as giving advice, talking about sports while stressing the benefits and sharing their past experiences. Daughters made it clear they felt positive support and encouragement from their mothers to participate and that expectations are based on effort rather than skill. No daughter mentioned that they felt pressured or thought their mother expected them to be great at a sport. One thing that was not found though is parents’ role modeling physical activity and showing value in it by doing it themselves or participating with their daughters. For those who were active daughters felt much support from their mothers by attending games, talking to them about sports, and encouraging them to try different things. This is consistent with the research of Brustad (1993), where it was found that a higher rate of parental encouragement correlated with perceived physical competence for children. 105 As we know from past research in exploring role-modeling, results found that none of the mothers and daughters consistently worked out with their mothers. Additionally, daughters stated that they rarely if ever witnessed their mothers working out or engaging in physical activity or playing a sport. A few daughters did note that they know their mother goes to a gym or on walks periodically. Past research by by Monsaas (1985), Sloan (1985), Sosniak (1985), and Sloboda and Howe (1991) has shown that parents of highly successful individuals modeled values related to achievement such as hard work, success, being active, and persistence. Lastly, although the majority of mothers were inactive not all daughters were as seen in table 1. There were dyads where the mothers were active and daughters were low in physical activity as well as dyads where the mother was inactive and the daughter highly active. As past research has shown that parental role modeling is relative and I believe it is, but it may not be as persuasive to African American daughters in regards to sport and physical activity participation. It could be more of a socialization process where mothers say, “do as I say not as I do”. Mothers influence on their daughters’ participation in sport and/or physical activity participation The third research question examined mothers’ influence on their daughters’ physical activity and sport participation. Analysis of transcripts revealed three main themes, namely, gender differences, mothers’ expectations, and mothers’ role. After the development of the themes, a relevant theory was used to examine the mothers’ influence and socialization in physical activity and sport participation. The comprehensive model of parental influence on children’s motivation and achievement (Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele’s, 1998) was chosen. This model proposed that a parent’s belief system contributes to the child’s activity motivation and achievement. The comprehensive model of parental influence on children’s motivation and 106 achievement (Figure 2 in chapter 2) has six main components (six boxes); three out of the six were supported by the data in this study. Supported components of the model included Parents’ general beliefs, Parents’ child specific beliefs, and Parents’ specific behaviors. These findings have been summarized in Appendix K where one can see a revised model with the findings from this particular study. Gender difference. The first main theme for research question three is gender difference. Component three (Box C) of Eccles et al.’s (1998) comprehensive model is labeled “Parents’ general beliefs and behaviors.” Components consisted of parents’ general beliefs and behaviors, or more specifically, parental gender stereotypes, culturally based beliefs and stigmas, and general and specific personal values. Gender beliefs were a relevant subtheme that came out. Mothers were asked if they thought there were any differences between girls and boys in physical activity and sport; nine mothers said yes and three said no. When asked if they felt sports were more important for girls than boys, mothers said no. The mothers that did say yes they thought sports were more important for girls were mothers who had a boy(s) as a child. One mother plainly noted, “I think physical activity is more important for boys…If my daughter chose that she just wanted to get straight A’s in school right now, I would be okay with that. If she wanted to quit anything. But if he (her son) said that to me, we would have a problem.” Past research has revealed that boys (race was not specified) tend to receive more parental support for physical activity and are more influenced by parent physical activity than girls (Gustafson & Rhodes, 2006). Mothers whose daughters were active noted that they did feel there was a difference, not that it was more important for boys than girls, but a societal difference stating, “I think that 107 society expects boys to participate in sports. But girls, uhh you can if you want to, you know, for girls”. The equality in current sports was discussed as mothers noted it is often hard for women’s sports to be of value. One mother noted that her daughter had to schedule a meeting with the high school athletic director and request equal practice time as the boys were receiving more. Another mother noted that often times males get priority in practice time. Her daughter always had late practice times because boys practiced first. Mothers made clear their thoughts on society holding boys to a higher expectation in sport participation and valuing boys’ participation much more. Mothers Expectations. The second main theme for research question three was Mothers expectations, which can be related to the fourth component (Box D) in Eccles et al.’s (1998) comprehensive model, the findings in the revised model for box D can be found in appendences K. Parental child-specific beliefs illustrate how parents’ function as interpreters of information related to competence and values. This includes the parents’ expectations for their child’s performance, perceptions of their child’s abilities, perceptions of their child’s interests, and beliefs about the value of certain tasks. Based on the interview comments, a prevalent component that related to Eccles’ model was mother’s expectations. Following the perspectives from Eccles’ theory, parents hold expectations concerning their children’s abilities in particular achievement areas. An expectation is defined as an individual’s perceived likelihood of success in an achievement activity (Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998). Mothers were asked to describe the expectations they have for their daughters with respect to physical activity and sport. Nine mothers noted they expect their child to “give their best”, seven moms said they expect their daughter to “not give up”, two mothers noted they have “no expectations”, and to “just be active” was noted by six mothers. Mothers clearly emphasized 108 effort in their expectations mentioning subthemes such as do not quit/follow though, give their best, and just be active, as no mother mentioned they expect skill or talent or for their daughter to excel in a sport. Mothers’ expectations for their daughters match up to exactly what the daughters thought their mothers expected of them, effort based physical activity. An important finding to note though is that while many mothers emphasized effort expectations, only two mothers stated unequivocally that they expect their daughters to be active. All other expectations’ were based on if their child was being active or if they decided to be active. It seemed to be more of “if they are active” or “if they choose to be active” they would expect nothing but 100% effort. In summary, it was clear that parents’ had expectations for their daughters once they chose to be involved in physical activity or a sport but it did not seem as though there was a big push of encouragement to become involved. Mothers Role. The third main theme for research question three is Mothers Role. Which relates to the fifth component (Box E) in Eccles’ et al. (1998) comprehensive model the findings in the revised model for box D can be found in appendices K. Components consist of actual behaviors shown by the parent, such as time with child, provision of toys/equipment and learning experiences, as well as encouragement to participate in various activities. Based on the interview comments, a prevalent related component was the mothers’ role in regards to their behaviors in promoting and encouraging their daughter in physical activity and sport. Mothers were asked to describe their role in their daughters’ physical activity and sport participation. Subthemes found were providing encouragement (in various ways to be discussed), lead by example, and provide resources such as sporting equipment and sport lessons. When it came to Mothers explaining what they thought their role was, providing encouragement was a significant finding. Mothers defined encouragement in a number of different ways such as, 109 telling her to do her best, push her, be supportive, provide finical support, and transportation. This goes with past research that noted that parental encouragement is an important correlate of youth physical activity (Anderssen & Wold,1992; Cardon, Renaat, Johan, Lynn, Katrien, AnneLine, & Ilse De, 2005; McGuire, Hannan, Stat, Neumark-Sztainer, Crossbow, & Story, 2002). Mothers view of their role and support also goes along with Beets et al. (2010) who acknowledged there are four categories of social support: instrumental (e.g., purchasing equipment/payment of fees, transportation), conditional (e.g., doing activities with the child, watching/supervision), motivational (e.g., encouragement, praise), and informational (e.g., discussing benefits). Although the majority of mothers seemed to note encouragement as being part of their role in their daughters’ physical activity and sport participation, it seemed as though mothers were referring to encouragement once, or if, their daughter was participating, not necessarily encouraging them to go out and participate in sports and activity. Only two mothers (whose daughters were currently active) said they believe their role was to push and make their daughters go out and try different sports and activities. It seemed as though mothers were “all in” if their daughters were or decided to participate in sports or physical activities but did not necessarily encourage them to go out and try. Perceptions of culturally appealing sports/activities. It is also important to note that while cultural identity may shape one’s attitudes towards physical activity and sport, African Americans are more visible and participate in certain sports such as basketball, baseball, and football more than other sports. One has to also consider the influence of social class and access to other sporting opportunities (Bimper & Harrison, 2011; Messner, 1989, 1990; Sailes, 1996). Previous research on the influence of minority culture in the 110 physical domain has been limited. Rather, the physical experience has been primarily framed within the Caucasian culture. The concept of culturally appropriate activities has been introduced in the literature; however, little insight into what these culturally appropriate activities actually consist of has been minimal. Thus, the final research question sought to explore African American mothers’ and daughters’ perceptions of what sports and activities they deemed appropriate and or appealing. Findings for perceptions on culturally appropriate/appealing activities for mothers’ were categorized as white sports, black sports, and appropriate characteristics. Daughters’ perceptions were categorized as not appropriate sports, appropriate sports, and characteristics of appropriate sports. Perceptions, stereotypes, African American role models, and the historical perspective appeared to determine African American mothers’ perceptions regarding appropriate and appealing activities. One mother noted Black sports were basketball, track, football, and volleyball. Mothers’ perceptions of what make sports and physical activities culturally appropriate were influenced by their beliefs of perceptions and stereotypes regarding activities, as well as perceptions of natural ability, peer participation, and community recognition. Mothers also identified specific characteristics that culturally appropriate activities should possess. Characteristics of culturally appropriate activities seemed to be financially feasible, opportunities for relatedness in regards to having role models, peer involvement, and a history of participation by people of Black descent. Inappropriate characteristics were also discussed in terms of sports that were known as having to be quiet in competition, such as, golf, and tennis. Also, activities that look too crazy and tough, such as roller derby, were deemed inappropriate. Daughters identified basketball, track and field, and dance/cheerleading as appropriate/appealing. Furthermore, characteristics for appealing activities consisted of having 111 role models, sports that African Americans seem to have natural talent in, and avoiding activities that one may not be good at or where they may be the only Black. African American girls desire to participate in activities where there is little risk associated with their participation, such as doing things they have never done before or the likelihood of being the only minority. The current study supports previous research exploring racial acceptance and perceived importance of leisure activities. Philipp (1999) suggested that many leisure activities might have racial information embedded in them. This racial information, which derives from a history of racial discrimination, segregation, and socioeconomic barriers to certain activities, tells African Americans where they “fit in” and where they do not. Daughters’ in this study discussed perceived discrimination, and how they thought they would feel uncomfortable if they participated in sports where they would be the only Black person, such as soccer. Even the elite soccer player in this study said she feels soccer is a white sport and at times feels herself being singled out and lonely. Additionally, daughters’ especially older girls mentioned they were worried about not fitting in or being made fun of by their peers, which could be applicable to all races but I think the being made fun of by peers for being the only minority on the team could be distinct to minorities. This research suggests that mothers perceive sports and physical activities in general to be culturally appropriate for their daughters. Fundamentally, mothers’ perceptions were driven by stereotypes as mothers did note that they do not have a problem with their daughter(s) participating in any sport but knows that society and the Black community has stereotypes and expectations. Daughters emphasized sports as being appropriate and not appropriate but it had more to do with their views of seeing people that looked like them participating in sport or just being scared to try and expose themselves to new things or being made fun of by their peers for 112 participating in a “white sport”. Finally, daughters’ showed that its not necessarily culture but more so peers, and what they are use to seeing, and feel comfortable with participating in, because they think they are good at it. As findings reach the conclusion that although a sport may be seen as appropriate or appealing to a culture does not mean one wants to participate in it, it could just simply be that it is perceived as appropriate. Future Research and Implications Further research is imperative for better understanding African American mothers’ and daughters’ perceptions, beliefs, values, and parental influence on the sport and/or physical activity participation of African American girls. Based on the results of this investigation, suggestions for future research include selecting participants from diverse geographic locations, as the majority of participants from this study were from one area. Although the results of this study may not be representative of all African American women and their adolescent daughters, nonetheless, this exploration of African American mothers and their daughters did have a diverse population of educational attainment, marital status, active and non-active mothers, and active and non-active daughters that did produce some pertinent findings. As there was a significant finding among mothers’ perceptions of the greater value and importance placed on their son(s) sport participation and their thoughts on society holding boys to a higher expectation in sport participation, further research should be conducted using the Eccles et al. (1998) comprehensive model of parental influence. This model should be used specifically on African American boys on their motivation and achievement, and their mothers’ influence of their participation. Also given the small sample size of this qualitative research study, a quantitative study could complement this research as it would allow for a substantial amount of participants and likely discourage any socially desirable responses. There is a need for 113 more research that emphasizes a single parent versus a two-parent household, as the number of single parent families continues to increase. This study explored African American mothers’ and daughters’ perceived benefits, negative outcomes, and value on sport and physical activity participation. Future research studies might also include questions regarding African American mothers’ and daughters’ preferences in a physical activity or sports program. Cultural values, characteristics and their effects on sport and physical activity were explored but findings from this research showed that mothers seem to perceive most if not all sports culturally appropriate which may have indicated that perceptions of what sports African Americans participate in could possibly be driven by stereotypes instead of appropriateness. Daughters emphasized their choices in sports and physical activities had more to do with their desires of wanting to see people that looked like them participating and thus it may be beneficial to further explore and provide interventions and programs that expose African American girls to sports considered “white sports.” Future research might also address the types of role models that African American adolescent girls would relate to because many girls mentioned not seeing people that look like them play certain sports. Also because a number of girls noted a lack of confidence or competence in a number of activities finding role models or programs that would assist in increasing girls’ knowledge of different sports and physical activities could be beneficial. Lastly, based on the findings from this study it is recommended that interventions and programs focus on teaching young African American girls more sport skills at a younger age, that we educate coaches and parents about the barriers placed on girls’ by not only them but boys their age as well. Also it is critical that we begin to introduce African American girls to a variety of sports where they can develop skills with girls of the same race. 114 APPENDICES 115 Appendix A. Informed Consent Exploring the African American Mother/Daughter Dyads, Perceptions, Beliefs, Value, and Parental Influence on Physical Activity and Sport Participation INFORMED CONSENT FORM Dear Parent: We are inviting you and your daughter to take part in a research study sponsored by Michigan State University. We would like to involve African American mothers and their daughters who are between the ages of 11-17 to participate in individual interviews. Introduction/Purpose: Participation in physical activity and sports participation provides many well-documented physiological and psychological benefits. The purpose of this project is to find out what you and your daughters’ thoughts, general beliefs, and specific behaviors are regarding physical activity, sport participation, and cultural appropriate activities relative to you, and your daughters’ beliefs. Procedures: In this study we will ask you to answer a few questions on the attached form so that we know your child’s age. We will ask you and your child to each participate in an individual interview, where you will be asked to answer a few questions about your values, beliefs, and specific behaviors in regards to physical activity and sport participation. Each interview should take approximately 60-90 minutes. Once you return the attached form, we will contact you to find out the best days and times for you and your child to participate. Please note that the sessions will be audio taped. Expected risks and benefits: Participating in this project involves minimal risk, although it is possible that we may ask a question or two that makes you or your child feel uncomfortable. If that is the case, you or your child will not have to answer it. Results will benefit other parents and children by informing us of culturally appropriate activities, will assist in designing a project that will help African American mothers and daughters increase physical activity. However, there will be no specific benefits to you and your family as a result of answering the questions. After the interview, you and your child will each be given a gift card valued at $25 to help pay for transportation and thank you for your time. Confidentiality and voluntary participation: All information collected during this study will be strictly confidential. We will not share any information about you or your children with anyone outside the study. Interviews will be audio recorded and then transcribed. We will not include names of the subjects in transcriptions, just what is said as part of the discussion. We will do everything possible to protect you and your daughters’ privacy and will not include you or your child’s name in any of the publications resulting from this study. You and your child’s confidentiality will be protected to the maximum extent allowable by law. All of the data will be stored in locked file cabinets or passwordprotected computer files at Michigan State University, and it will be kept for at least six years. Only the project investigators and staff will have access to your/your child’s data. Only the 116 project investigators, will be able to access and receive the results of the study. You/your child’s participation is voluntary, and you/your child are free to withdraw from the project at any time without penalty. If you decide to withdraw, it will not hurt your relations with Michigan State University or Extension, or any other organization associated with this project. This form explains what is involved with participating in this project. Please read it carefully and ask any questions you may have. If you do not have questions now, you may ask later. If you have any questions about this study, please contact Marty Ewing at (517) 353-4652; 201 IM Sports Circle Building, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824; mewing@msu.edu). If you have any questions or concerns about your role and rights as a research participant, or would like to register a complaint about this research study, you may contact, anonymously if you wish, MSU's Human Research Protection Programs, at 517-355-2180, FAX 517-432-4503, or e-mail irb@msu.edu, or regular mail at: 202 Olds Hall, MSU, East Lansing, MI 48824 PLEASE KEEP THE FIRST PAGE FOR YOUR INFORMATION AND RECORDS. PLEASE FILL OUT THE ATTACHED PAGE AND RETURN IT. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. 117 I have read the contents of this consent form and have been encouraged to ask any questions I may have. I have received answers to my questions. I give consent for myself and for my 1117 year-old child to participate in this research project. I have received a copy of the forms explaining the project. I agree to be audio taped. Child’s name (please print) Parent’s name (please print) Parent’s signature / Date Project coordinator / / Parent’s gender __________________ Child’s gender _________________ Child’s race/ethnicity Street/mailing address /______ Parent’s birth date / /______ Child’s birth date City, State, Zip Home phone number Daytime phone WE WILL NOT SHARE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION with anyone outside this project. 118 Appendix B. Assent Form Exploring the African American Mother/Daughter Dyads, Perceptions, Beliefs, Value, and Parental Influence on Physical Activity and Sport Participation CHILD ASSENT FORM The research team would like you to participate in their research study which is investigating what people your age think about physical activity, and sport participation and your view of parental support to participate in physical activity and sports will be addressed. A current graduate student from Michigan State University will ask you a few questions; the interview will last around 45-60 minutes. The researchers will ask you questions about activities that you like to participate in, and your view on different physical activities and sports. The session will be audio recorded. There is not much risk for you to be in this study. The researchers might ask you some questions that could make you feel uncomfortable, but you don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to. You will not gain any direct benefit from being in the study, but you will help the researchers design future programs for kids your age. Also, you will receive a gift worth $25 to thank you for your help. Anything you say will be kept confidential by the researchers. Any information about you will be kept in locked storage at Michigan State University, and only the researchers will have access to it. It is up to you if you want to do this study. If you do not like being in the study, you can choose to stop at any point in time, and the researchers will not be mad or think any less of you. By signing below, you are saying that you want to be in this research study. Name (please print) / Signature / Date 119 Appendix C. Parents Demographic Survey Number of children How many boys do you have _________ How many girls do you have _________ Occupation What is your current Occupation ________________________________________________________ Employment status ____ Full time ____Part time ____Retired ___Unemployed ____Housewife Education What is the highest level of education you have completed? ____ Some High School ____ High School diploma or GED ____ Associates Degree ____ Some College ____ Bachelors Degree ____ Masters Degree ____ Professional Degree (MD, PhD, Law Degree, EdD) ____ Other Please specify ___________________________________________________________ Martial Status ______ Single ______ Married Age Your age ______________ Neighborhood resources Please briefly describe the resources available in your home or in close proximity (e.g YMCA, Fitness Centers, In home workout equipment) 120 Appendix D. IPAQ INTERNATIONAL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY QUESTIONNAIRE We are interested in finding out about the kinds of physical activities that people do as part of their everyday lives. The questions will ask you about the time you spent being physically active in the last 7 days. Please answer each question even if you do not consider yourself to be an active person. Please think about the activities you do at work, as part of your house and yard work, to get from place to place, and in your spare time for recreation, exercise or sport. Think about all the vigorous and moderate activities that you did in the last 7 days. Vigorous physical activities refer to activities that take hard physical effort and make you breathe much harder than normal. Moderate activities refer to activities that take moderate physical effort and make you breathe somewhat harder than normal. PART 1: JOB-RELATED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY The first section is about your work. This includes paid jobs, farming, volunteer work, course work, and any other unpaid work that you did outside your home. Do not include unpaid work you might do around your home, like housework, yard work, general maintenance, and caring for your family. These are asked in Part 3. 1. Do you currently have a job or do any unpaid work outside your home? Yes No Skip to PART 2: TRANSPORTATION The next questions are about all the physical activity you did in the last 7 days as part of your paid or unpaid work. This does not include traveling to and from work. 2. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you do vigorous physical activities like heavy lifting, digging, heavy construction, or climbing up stairs as part of your work? Think about only those physical activities that you did for at least 10 minutes at a time. _____ days per week No vigorous job-related physical activity Skip to question 4 3. How much time did you usually spend on one of those days doing vigorous physical activities as part of your work? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day 4. Again, think about only those physical activities that you did for at least 10 minutes at a time. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you do moderate physical activities like carrying light loads as part of your work? Please do not include walking. _____ days per week No moderate job-related physical activity 121 Skip to question 6 5. How much time did you usually spend on one of those days doing moderate physical activities as part of your work? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day 6. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you walk for at least 10 minutes at a time as part of your work? Please do not count any walking you did to travel to or from work. _____ days per week No job-related walking 7. Skip to PART 2: TRANSPORTATION How much time did you usually spend on one of those days walking as part of your work? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day PART 2: TRANSPORTATION PHYSICAL ACTIVITY These questions are about how you traveled from place to place, including to places like work, stores, movies, and so on. 8. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you travel in a motor vehicle like a train, bus, car, or tram? _____ days per week No traveling in a motor vehicle 9. Skip to question 10 How much time did you usually spend on one of those days traveling in a train, bus, car, tram, or other kind of motor vehicle? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day Now think only about the bicycling and walking you might have done to travel to and from work, to do errands, or to go from place to place. 10. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you bicycle for at least 10 minutes at a time to go from place to place? _____ days per week No bicycling from place to place Skip to question 12 122 11. How much time did you usually spend on one of those days to bicycle from place to place? _____ _____ 12. hours per day minutes per day During the last 7 days, on how many days did you walk for at least 10 minutes at a time to go from place to place? _____ days per week No walking from place to place 13. Skip to PART 3: HOUSEWORK, HOUSE MAINTENANCE, AND CARING FOR FAMILY How much time did you usually spend on one of those days walking from place to place? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day PART 3: HOUSEWORK, HOUSE MAINTENANCE, AND CARING FOR FAMILY This section is about some of the physical activities you might have done in the last 7 days in and around your home, like housework, gardening, yard work, general maintenance work, and caring for your family. 14. Think about only those physical activities that you did for at least 10 minutes at a time. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you do vigorous physical activities like heavy lifting, chopping wood, shoveling snow, or digging in the garden or yard? _____ days per week No vigorous activity in garden or yard Skip to question 16 15. How much time did you usually spend on one of those days doing vigorous physical activities in the garden or yard? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day 16. Again, think about only those physical activities that you did for at least 10 minutes at a time. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you do moderate activities like carrying light loads, sweeping, washing windows, and raking in the garden or yard? _____ days per week 123 No moderate activity in garden or yard Skip to question 18 17. How much time did you usually spend on one of those days doing moderate physical activities in the garden or yard? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day 18. Once again, think about only those physical activities that you did for at least 10 minutes at a time. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you do moderate activities like carrying light loads, washing windows, scrubbing floors and sweeping inside your home? _____ days per week No moderate activity inside home Skip to PART 4: RECREATION, SPORT AND LEISURE-TIME PHYSICAL ACTIVITY 19. How much time did you usually spend on one of those days doing moderate physical activities inside your home? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day PART 4: RECREATION, SPORT, AND LEISURE-TIME PHYSICAL ACTIVITY This section is about all the physical activities that you did in the last 7 days solely for recreation, sport, exercise or leisure. Please do not include any activities you have already mentioned. 20. Not counting any walking you have already mentioned, during the last 7 days, on how many days did you walk for at least 10 minutes at a time in your leisure time? _____ days per week No walking in leisure time Skip to question 22 21. How much time did you usually spend on one of those days walking in your leisure time? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day 124 22. Think about only those physical activities that you did for at least 10 minutes at a time. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you do vigorous physical activities like aerobics, running, fast bicycling, or fast swimming in your leisure time? _____ days per week No vigorous activity in leisure time Skip to question 24 23. How much time did you usually spend on one of those days doing vigorous physical activities in your leisure time? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day 24. Again, think about only those physical activities that you did for at least 10 minutes at a time. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you do moderate physical activities like bicycling at a regular pace, swimming at a regular pace, and doubles tennis in your leisure time? _____ days per week No moderate activity in leisure time Skip to PART 5: TIME SPENT SITTING 25. How much time did you usually spend on one of those days doing moderate physical activities in your leisure time? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day PART 5: TIME SPENT SITTING The last questions are about the time you spend sitting while at work, at home, while doing course work and during leisure time. This may include time spent sitting at a desk, visiting friends, reading or sitting or lying down to watch television. Do not include any time spent sitting in a motor vehicle that you have already told me about. 125 26. During the last 7 days, how much time did you usually spend sitting on a weekday? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day 27. During the last 7 days, how much time did you usually spend sitting on a weekend day? _____ hours per day _____ minutes per day This is the end of the questionnaire, thank you for participating. 126 Appendix E. Racial Pride Scale The following questions are statements regarding racial pride. There are no right or wrong answers simply answer as you honestly feel. Please read each statement and circle the number that appropriately describes how much you agree or disagree with each statement on the scale 1,2,3, or 4. 1. Being Black is important to who I am. Strongly Disagree 1 2. 3 Strongly Agree 4 Disagree 2 Agree 3 Disagree 2 Agree 3 7. Disagree 2 Agree 3 Strongly Agree 4 127 2 Agree 3 Strongly Agree 4 Disagree 2 Agree 3 Strongly Agree 4 I feel a strong connection to other Black women. Strongly Disagree 1 Strongly Agree 4 Disagree The women I respect most in life are Black. Strongly Disagree 1 Strongly Agree 4 Black women should keep up with issues that are important to the Black community. Strongly Disagree 1 Black People make America strong Strongly Disagree 1 6. I think everybody should be taught about how Black people helped to build America. Strongly Disagree 1 4. 2 Agree Racial pride is important for developing strong Black families. Strongly Disagree 1 3. Disagree 5. Disagree 2 Agree 3 Strongly Agree 4 Appendix F. Childs Demographic Survey How Old Are you ____________ How Many Siblings do you have ________________ Are you the? oldest child _______middle _______ 128 youngest ________ Other_______ 129 What types of physical activities or sports (if any) are you currently or have you recently participated in (anything above the 12years old, sport teams, clubs, dance teams etc…)? 130 APPENDIX G Mothers Interview Guide I want to start by saying that you for your time as I truly appreciate your willingness to participate. I would like to remind you that although we are audio taping this interview, I will not be able to link your comments to who you are as they will be kept confidential. Per your request I can stop the interview at anytime and your incentive will not be affected in anyway. Please feel free to be honest, as I am not here to judge but rather I am here to find out your thoughts and opinions. As I value your time so if you don’t have questions or objections, we can get started! Introduction/Ice Breaker Questions 01. Tell me about physical activity o Physical activity experiences as a child o Current sports/physical activities, either organized or unorganized 02. Tell me about your daughters physical activity o How much physical activity does your child get o What does she like to participate in (preferred acts) o Is it an adequate amount 03. How important is physical activity or sport to you? o In comparison to other activities that your child may participate in? 04. What types of activities does your daughter participate in? o What activities do you feel are important for your daughter to participate in outside of school hours? o Why are these activities important? 05. Are there any negative outcomes/problems of you daughter being physically active or playing sports? o If so what are they? (For your daughter, you, etc. Can be from a time, physical, economic, social, etc. standpoint.) 06. Are there any benefits/positives of your daughter participating in sport or being active? o If so what are they? 07. Do you think there are any differences between girls and boys in physical activity and sport? o Is sport/physical activity participation more important for either of them? As a mother what do you believe your role is in your daughters physical activity or sports? How are you involved? What influence or impact do you have on your child’s involvement? 131 Describe your expectations for your child with respect to physical activity and sport 08. What do you expect from your daughter? o Do you expect your daughter active non-active? o How much do you expect your child to play? o Do you expect your daughter to excel in sports? (Does this impact the opportunities you provide or if you encourage or discourage your daughter with in PA or Sport?) Although regularly engaging in physical activity is important to a healthy way of living, disparities in levels of physical activity not only exist between genders, but between ethnic groups. So a question that has been brought up is, Why do African Americans and Caucasians tend to participate in different sports when they are offered the same sports?” It was has been found that African American students focus and participate in the activities that are stereotypically associated with their racial identity and where strong racial hierarchies exist, African. This has suggested that sports and activities have historically generated racial information embedded in them (e.g., stereotypes regarding level of ability, role models present in particular sports, racialized norms, etc). With this in mind I am going to ask a few questions that touch upon your opinions and views of what activities are deemed more appropriate over others 09. As a women of an ethnic minority group are, there any cultural characteristics that impact your perception, value, and/or participation in physical activities or any particular sport? 10. Are there any sports/activities considered by you to be more culturally appropriate or appealing than others? (or other African American Mothers you know) 11. Are there any sports/physical activities that you feel are NOT appropriate for your daughter to participate in? Why? o What would be your response if your daughter came home saying she wanted to play, basketball, football, softball, swimming, gymnastics, cheer or dance? o What would make you encourage or discourage your daughter to participate in one sport/activity over another? Is there anything you would like to say or add on the subject? Once again I thank you for your time as it is much appreciated as you have my contact information if you have any questions, comments or concerns in the near future please feel free to contact me, once again thank you for your time. 132 APPENDIX H Daughters Interview Guide I want to start by saying thank you for your time as I truly appreciate your willingness to participate. I would like to remind you that although we are audio taping this interview, I will not be able to link your comments to who you are as they will be kept confidential. Per your request I can stop the interview and your incentive will not be affected in anyway. Please feel free to be honest, as I am not here to judge but rather I am here to find out your thoughts and opinions. If at anytime you don’t understand what I am asking or if you need me to repeat a question just let me know. I value your time so if you don’t have questions or objections, we can get started! Introduction/Ice Breaker Questions 1. Tell me about your sport and physical activity experiences? • Current sport and physical activities you participate in • What do you like about participating in physical activity or sports? Talk to me about the importance to physical activity and sport participation to you 2. How important is physical activity or sport to you? • In comparison to other activities that you participate in 3. Are there any negative outcomes/problems you have or had experienced in being physically active or playing sports? • If so what are they? ( Can be from a time, physical, economic, social, etc. standpoint.) 4. Are there any benefits/positives of you participating in sport or being active? • If so what are they? For the next few questions I am going to ask you questions about your mom’s impact and influence on you engaging in physical activity and sport. Remember there are no right or wrong answers. 5. Does your Mom encourage you to be active or play sports? • Does she give you things to play with? • Does she talk to you about sports? 6. Does your Mom discourage you from being physically active in any way? 7. Have you ever been discouraged from participating in sports by anyone or because of anything? 133 • Financial, transportation, etc.. • People made fun of you? Great job, now I am going to ask you some questions on what you think your moms expectations are for you in physical activity and sport. 8. What do you think your mom expects from you in terms of PA and sport? • Does she expect you to be active non-active? • How much does she expect you to play? • Does she expect you to excel in sports? • Does she care about you being good in sports? (Does this impact your participation at all, encourage or discourage you?) 9. Do you and your mother ever engage in physical activity and sports together? (What do you enjoy about participating with your mom? Or not enjoy?) Great, thank you for those insightful answers. I now want to explore your opinions on different physical activities and sports based on your race. Remember there are no right or wrongs answer as these are just your opinions and views, so feel free to express them freely. Remember if you don’t understand what I am asking or if at anytime need me to repeat a question just let me know. 10. Are there any sports/physical activities that you think appeal more to African-American girls? • If so why are they more appealing? 11. Are there any sports/physical activities that you feel are NOT appropriate for you to participate in because of your race? • Why are they not appropriate? 12. Have you ever been discouraged from participating in any sports or physical activity? • Who discouraged you? Why? 13. Do boys your age have any influence on your decision to participate in sport? What is a typical response you have heard from boys when you participate? Is there anything you would like to say or add on the subject? Once again I thank you for your time as it is much appreciated as you have my contact information if you have any questions, comments or concerns in the near future please feel free to contact me, once again thank you for your time. 134 Table 10. Findings Summarized Daughters Likes about physical activity participation Life skills Fun Learn sport skills Stay in shape Social Mothers Expectations Not quit Excel in sports Give 100% Try different things None Importance of Physical activity Kind of (not really) Yes (very) Not Important Benefits of PA Fun Something to do Health benefits Life Skills Future opportunities Negative Outcomes sport participation Limited resources Negative feedback Physical aspects Social aspects Discouraging Factors Boys Race Issues Lack of confidence Mothers Influence None Encouragement Cultural appropriate activities Non appropriate Others Most cited Mothers Importance of Physical activity Very Important Not Important Mothers Expectation for their daughters Give their best Don’t quit/follow through No expectations Just be active Gender difference Yes No Cultural appropriate activities Most appealing Not appealing/not appropriate Mothers Role Provide encouragement Be physically active myself Provide resources Benefits of PA Health benefits Life skills outside of sport Psychological Socialization Negative Outcomes of sport participation Racial issues Injuries None Lack of resources Mean parents/peers Time requirements 135 Figure 3. 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