Association between perceived discrimination and physical activity among adolescents

Abstract

Perceived discrimination is a major producer of stress and social trauma and can have negative effects on the physical and mental health of those exposed to it. This study aims to analyze the direct and indirect association between perceived discrimination and physical ac-tivity, mediated by common mental disorders in adolescents. This is a cross-sectional study with 2,484 adolescents (aged 18 and 19 years old) from a cohort in São Luís, Maranhão. Structural equation models were used to verify the direct effect of perceived discrimination on physical activity (PA) and its indirect effect mediated by common mental disorders (CMD). The potential of sex to act as an effect-modifying variable was also test-ed. Discrimination was associated with higher levels of PA in women (SC-Standardized Coef-ficient direct =0.105, p-value=0.005), and indi-rectly associated with lower PA via CMT among men (SCindirect =-0.024, p-value=0.017) and women (SCindirect =-0.024, p-value=0.015). Our findings show the association between perceived discrimination and PA in this population of adolescents, attesting that its effects can alter health behaviors and that gender can modify the relation between these variables.