Teaming Up
Lisa Kihl (back, left) collaborated with parents, staff, and youth at Dayton's Bluff recreation center in St. Paul to create a sustainably safe environment for youth baseball.
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By Kate Hopper
The need for young people to be active is more than a matter of fun and games; it can mean life or death. Lack of physical exercise can lead to a lifetime of health problems.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 64 percent of Americans are obese or overweight, and the numbers have tripled among children and teenagers in the last two decades, to 23 million. Though obesity has increased among all age groups and ethnicities, in children and teens, obesity is highest among Mexican American boys (about 22 percent) and non-Hispanic Black girls (23 percent).
People with disabilities are twice as likely to be obese than those without disabilities, as well, yet they are largely ignored in health outreach programs.
“This is a huge problem in our society,” says Pat Salmi, research associate in the Research and Training Center on Community Living (RTC) in the Institute on Community Integration. “Obesity is affected by the culture in which people grow up, the types of food they are raised eating, the cost of food, and whether people have access to healthful foods and exercise.”
Yet fewer than half of adults in the U.S. get the recommended levels of physical activity, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. College faculty and staff are reaching out to underserved populations to address these imbalances.
Identifying barriers
Increasing access for youth is a high priority among college faculty. The 2007 Tucker Center Research Report, Developing Physically Active Girls, found that participation in physical activity outside of organized sports is declining among girls, even while they are participating in organized sports in record numbers. In the case of African-American adolescent girls, only 21 percent report a healthy amount of physical activity, according to the CDC.
“Over 40 percent of African American girls aged 6 to 19 are overweight or obese,” says Daheia Barr-Anderson, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology. “This rate is 5 percent and 10 percent greater than the prevalence for Hispanic and white girls, respectively.”
This fall, Barr-Anderson will hold focus groups with African American girls and their mothers and do inventories of food, physical activities, and media to understand what factors lead to such numbers, which only get worse with age. “The high rate … is of great concern in African American girls because being overweight in childhood is predictive of being overweight in adulthood,” she explains.
The implications extend beyond just the corporal. “In addition to the health benefits, there are also psychological and emotional benefits for adolescents of being physically active—less risk for depression, improved academic performance, improved self-esteem,” she says.
Chelsey Thul, along with adviser Nicole LaVoi, identified the need for a protected recreational space for the East African adolescent girls.
Though Barr-Anderson doesn’t want to speculate on what will emerge in the focus groups, typical barriers to physical activity can include family responsibilities, safety concerns, limited access to recreational facilities or opportunities, and lack of support from family and peers. Once she has gathered the information from her research subjects, she hopes to create an obesity prevention program designed specifically for African-American girls.
Through research and community partnerships, Nicole LaVoi, Jo Ann Buysse, and Chelsey Thul have collaborated on ways for East African immigrant girls to be active.
Embracing culture
The 2007 Tucker Center report suggested that girls should be listened to when physical activity is being developed for them. “Involving girls in this process empowers them and lets them know they have a say in programming,” says Chelsey Thul, a doctoral student in the School of Kinesiology. When programmed activities are based on what the girls actually want to do, rather than on what programmers or scholars think they want to do, participation increases, she explains.
This is especially important when working with ethnic minorities to ensure that the activities are culturally relevant. “When activities uphold personal, social, and cultural values,” says Thul, “girls are more apt to join, and parents and the community may be more supportive of participation.”
Last year, with a grant from the Melpomene Institute for Women’s Health Research, Thul and Tucker Center Associate Director Nicole LaVoi interviewed 19 East African adolescent girls in the Twin Cities Metro about their experiences with and beliefs about physical activity. The girls shared the type of activities they enjoy, the barriers they face, and made suggestions about how to promote physically active living within their culture.
Some of the barriers they encounter to exercise include a lack of time because of homework and caring for siblings, feelings of incompetence because they had never been taught, peer gender stereotypes, lack of parental support and encouragement, and an absence of programming.
“But the most important characteristic that came up in our data,” says LaVoi, “was that the girls needed a safe space to be active.” Specifically, they needed a private, female-only space where they could uphold cultural norms of privacy and modesty. They also expressed the need for committed coaches and instructors who understand their culture.
Now Thul is collaborating with Fatimah Hussein of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, located at the Brian Coyle Center, to increase exercise opportunities for Somali women. Last winter Hussein, with help from Melpomene, launched female-only gym days at the Brian Coyle Center.
Professor Jo Ann Buysse, coordinator of the sports management program at the college, began volunteering for the program in January and loves to see the girls and young women enjoying themselves. “This is often one of the only times that they really get to exercise during the week. One woman was very happy about losing some weight, and it was really nice to see all of them become stronger.”
Thul agrees. “It’s a time that is just for them. They can take off their head scarves, wear what they want, and have a good time.” And though most of the participants are teens and young adults, one day a woman in her seventies showed up, ready to play basketball. “She clearly had never played before, but she was laughing and having such a good time,” says Thul.
Thul is working with Hussein and the girls who use the gym to decide how to best spend her $2,000 CEHD Women’s Philanthropic Leadership Circle Graduate Award to sustain the program. The next phase of research will assess the girls’ perceptions of acceptable spaces. “We want to know where and what spaces the girls perceive are open and available to them in their neighborhoods and communities,” says LaVoi. “So we can better help them plan where to be active.”
Safe spaces
Just being able to play outside can be a challenge in some areas. Lisa Kihl, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology, sees safety as one of the big challenges to the sustainability of urban sports programs. Kihl has been working with a recreation center on St. Paul’s East Side to address issues that led to decreased participation in the Minnesota Twins’ Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) Rookie League program for youth ages 8 to 12.
“There is a lot of money invested in urban activity and programming in the Twin Cities,” says Kihl, “but unless you have a safe environment and a staff trained to address the unique issues that can arise in urban sports, kids won’t participate.”
At this East Side recreation center, there was a strong gang presence—gang members loitering, bullying kids, and dealing drugs near the baseball field. “There was a general disrespect of the space as a place for recreation,” says Kihl.
With Minnesota Twins RBI Coordinator Frank White, Kihl facilitated a community-based action research approach, which supported community members as they identified problems and solutions. Besides safety, other issues they identified included unmaintained fields, lack of good coaches, and the kids’ belief that baseball is a “white sport.”
Center staff began working with St. Paul police to increase safety at the park. Social work professor Mike Baizerman helped facilitate a dialogue with area gang members and launched a Youth in Transition program to help them lead more positive lives. Playing fields also have been improved, though city budget cuts are affecting routine maintenance.
“This has been a huge success,” says Kihl. “And it’s an example of how the delivery of urban sports is not just about the delivery of sports. You need other programs running side by side to address the issues unique to urban programs. Without Mike’s work, the center wouldn’t be able to deliver the RBI program.”
In the year the study started the league had six teams, but four dropped out. Participation is starting to build again as kids learn to love baseball through experience with successful play and having fun. Recreation center staff watch the players and encourage them, too, which makes a difference, says Kihl.
Increasing access
People with disabilities face a different set of challenges in being physically active. According to the CDC, people with disabilities are among the least likely to engage in regular moderate physical activity. More than half of adults with disabilities reported an absence of physical activity during their leisure time, as compared to 34 percent of those without disabilities.
“Often people with disabilities don’t have access to as many recreation activities as they would like,” says Angela Amado, research associate in RTC. Amado helped develop LifePages.org, an interactive database designed to increase opportunities, access, and support in community recreation and leisure activities for people with developmental disabilities.
Despite some initial challenges, including limited Internet access in residential homes, the program has been a success. Staff report that users are participating in a wider range of activities and connecting with people in different agencies who have similar interests. Amado says that the site gets more than 5,000 hits a month.
Salmi, also with RTC, says LifePages is one way to help people with disabilities be more independent and take charge of their own wellness.
Salmi has also been working to help people with disabilities lead healthier lives through the Ramsey County Physical Activity and Nutrition Training Program. Using a curriculum developed at the Oregon Institute on Disability and Development, Salmi and her colleagues at RTC train professionals, covering dimensions of social health, physical activity, emotional health, preventing illness, and goal-setting. “We selected this curriculum because of its holistic approach,” says Salmi.
Earlier this year, RTC trained 20 individuals from vocational and residential service providers, as well as two University staff, who will go on to train individuals with disabilities within their organizations.
“So often people with disabilities have eating goals imposed on them,” says Salmi. “But this curriculum gives individuals the opportunity to set their own goals. They have a chance to think about what will make their lives better.”
In the end, empowering individuals to take charge of their well-being may be the great equalizer.