Influence of marianismo beliefs on physical activity of young immigrant Latinas

There are marked declines in physical activity among young women, beginning in adolescence and continuing through young adulthood. This decline is more profound among immigrant Hispanic women and places them at significantly higher risk for the development of chronic illnesses, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Various reasons have been given to explain the lack of physical activity among these women. Latinas are often socialized into placing family needs above their own throughout their lives, a construct referred to as marianismo. Marianismo beliefs may serve as a barrier to self-care and may contribute to depressive symptoms and low self-efficacy for exercise. Community participation models appear to hold much promise to assist such women to become empowered to adopt health promotion behaviors. The primary aims of this qualitative study were to: 1) examine the attitudes and beliefs of a group of young Latinas with regard to physical activity and 2) integrate relevant findings into a pilot physical activity intervention for Latinas using a Freirian model of empowerment. Culture circles (focus groups), each comprised of 8-10 women, met for two sessions. Questions were guided by Freire's modes of “listening” and “dialog” and were designed to: 1) explicate the meaning of community as experienced by Hispanic women; 2) identify health issues of concern to Hispanic women; 3) explore the perception of sedentarism as a problem for Hispanic women and 4) identify barriers to physical activity, particularly mariansmo beliefs, within the Latina community. Spradley's ethnographic analysis guided examination of the transcripts.