Spirituality of African-American women: correlations to health-promoting behaviors

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate how spirituality relates to health-promoting behaviors in African-American women. Using Burkhart's theoretical framework for spirituality, a descriptive cross-sectional correlational design was used. A group of 260 (N=260) women completed Rosenbergh's Self-Esteem Scale, the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II, the Spiritual Perspective Scale, the Brief Block 2000 Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). These women also provided the researchers with their socio-demographic data. Canonical correlation analysis identified a significant pair of canonical variables which indicated that those individuals with good nutrition (.95), physical activity (.79), and healthy eating (.42) were positively associated with stress management (.88), health responsibility (.67), spiritual growth (.66), interpersonal relations (.50), education (.49), and self-esteem (.33). This set of variables explained 56% of the variability (p < .001). Practitioners should incorporate the message of spirituality by focusing on strategies to improve health responsibility, interpersonal relations, and self-esteem, along with health-promoting behaviors.