TY - JOUR
T1 - What walking means to moms
T2 - Insights from a national sample to frame walking in compelling ways to low-income urban mothers
AU - Segar, Michelle L.
AU - Heinrich, Katie M.
AU - Zieff, Susan G.
AU - Lyn, Rodney
AU - Gustat, Jeanette
AU - Tompkins, Nancy O׳Hara
AU - Perry, Cynthia K.
AU - Umstattd Meyer, M. Renée
AU - Bornstein, Daniel
AU - Manteiga, Alicia
AU - Eyler, Amy A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Cooperative Agreement Number U48/DP001903 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prevention Research Centers Program, Special Interest Project 9-09, and the Physical Activity Policy Research Network.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/6
Y1 - 2017/6
N2 - Population-wide initiatives aim to educate individuals about the benefits of walking, such as Step It Up! (United States), Walking for Health (England), and Canada Walks (Canada). Low-income women are a strategic group to target for walking communications because lower-income individuals and women have lower rates of physical activity than the general population and men. For messages to motivate mothers to walk, however, they need to frame walking in ways that makes walking sufficiently relevant and compelling. We investigated what walking means to low-income urban mothers as a first step toward identifying more compelling and motivating ways to frame and communicate about walking to them. Focus groups were conducted across seven different urban areas in the United States among low-income urban mothers (n=52) and transcribed. Grounded theory was used to code and analyze the data. This study identified salient beliefs, barriers, and life concerns that should be addressed when framing and branding walking to low-income urban mothers. Communications emphasizing dose-based recommendations (e.g., time, intensity) are irrelevant to mothers’ lives and also appear to be confusing as well as ineffective motivators. While some participants desired experiential benefits from walking, such as time with family, others sought instrumental benefits, such as losing weight. Regardless of the benefits desired, however, there was a general consensus that walking was a low daily priority. Thus, for messages to successfully promote walking, they need to imbue walking with a compelling meaning that makes walking relevant to mothers in ways that can help them achieve their daily needs and wants. In addition, future communications should address the potentially negative meanings and stress low-income mothers experience when walking is a compulsory form of transportation. These data offer insights into preliminary suggestions for framing walking to boost its daily relevance, desirability, and usefulness to low-income urban mothers.
AB - Population-wide initiatives aim to educate individuals about the benefits of walking, such as Step It Up! (United States), Walking for Health (England), and Canada Walks (Canada). Low-income women are a strategic group to target for walking communications because lower-income individuals and women have lower rates of physical activity than the general population and men. For messages to motivate mothers to walk, however, they need to frame walking in ways that makes walking sufficiently relevant and compelling. We investigated what walking means to low-income urban mothers as a first step toward identifying more compelling and motivating ways to frame and communicate about walking to them. Focus groups were conducted across seven different urban areas in the United States among low-income urban mothers (n=52) and transcribed. Grounded theory was used to code and analyze the data. This study identified salient beliefs, barriers, and life concerns that should be addressed when framing and branding walking to low-income urban mothers. Communications emphasizing dose-based recommendations (e.g., time, intensity) are irrelevant to mothers’ lives and also appear to be confusing as well as ineffective motivators. While some participants desired experiential benefits from walking, such as time with family, others sought instrumental benefits, such as losing weight. Regardless of the benefits desired, however, there was a general consensus that walking was a low daily priority. Thus, for messages to successfully promote walking, they need to imbue walking with a compelling meaning that makes walking relevant to mothers in ways that can help them achieve their daily needs and wants. In addition, future communications should address the potentially negative meanings and stress low-income mothers experience when walking is a compulsory form of transportation. These data offer insights into preliminary suggestions for framing walking to boost its daily relevance, desirability, and usefulness to low-income urban mothers.
KW - Branding
KW - Communication
KW - Framing
KW - Mothers motivation
KW - Walking
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jth.2016.06.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jth.2016.06.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84979695539
SN - 2214-1405
VL - 5
SP - 5
EP - 15
JO - Journal of Transport and Health
JF - Journal of Transport and Health
ER -