The role of the 'obligation to help others' within the superwoman schema: implications for physical activity in African American women with low activity levels.

The Superwoman Schema (SWS) provides a critical framework for understanding how African American (AA) women respond to stress resulting from adversity. While past studies have found that components of the SWS are associated with negative mental health outcomes, little research has evaluated physical activity (PA) and has been limited by self-reports. This study examined whether the 'obligation to help others' subscale of the SWS was associated with PA after accounting for selected social-motivational variables commonly examined in PA research, including self-efficacy, self-determined motivation, and social support from family. Baseline data from 301 AA women (MBMI = 35.89 ± 7.60; Mage = 53.47 ± 13.66) who participated in the 'Together Everyone Achieves More Physical Activity' randomized controlled trial were included. Participants completed a baseline survey, including the 'obligation to help others' subscale of the SWS and measures of self-efficacy, self-determined motivation, and social support. Participants wore an ActiGraph accelerometer for 7-days to assess daily minutes of light and moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA). Linear regression models revealed that the 'obligation to help others' was positively associated with greater light PA (B = 3.90, SE = 1.88, p = 0.039), which is contrary to past research on the SWS with self-reported PA. Only autonomous motivation was significantly associated with greater light (B = 6.91, SE = 1.98, p = 0.001) and MVPA (B = 0.27, SE = 0.08, p = 0.001). This study highlights the importance of addressing barriers and sources of resiliency related to the SWS, including the obligation to help others, in future PA interventions for AA women.Trials registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT (# NCT05519696).