Smith, Nathan Grant2018-02-152018-02-15December 22015-12December 2http://hdl.handle.net/10657/2172Many factors may contribute to the higher prevalence of overweight and obesity for Black women. Associations between discrimination and health behaviors have been identified (Laitinen, Ek, & Sovio, 2002; Oliver & Wardle, 1999). Stress as a result of racial and gender discrimination may lead to changes in health behaviors such as maladaptive eating habits as a coping response; these behaviors may ultimately have an influence on Black women’s health. In addition, major substantive questions remain about the conditions that moderate the effects of discrimination on health behaviors among Black women. Thus, this study examined two questions: (a) Is there a relationship between discrimination (i.e., racial and gender) and dietary behavior (e.g., low-fat eating and snacking on sweets)? and (b) Is the relationship between discrimination and dietary behaviors moderated by health locus of control orientation (e.g., internal and matter of chance)? Two hundred and twenty-seven participants were recruited and data were collected online. It was expected that discrimination and health locus of control would each contribute significantly to dietary behaviors in this sample of women. Moderated regressions were used to test the study hypotheses. Bivariate correlations results revealed that internal HLOC was positively associated with low-fat eating behavior; chance HLOC was positively associated with snacking on sweets eating behavior; and racial discrimination was positively associated with snacking on sweets eating behaviors. Results also indicated that internal HLOC and chance HLOC served as moderators in the relationship between racial and gender discrimination and snacking on sweets eating behaviors but not for low-fat eating behaviors. Implications for future research are discussed.application/pdfengThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).Racial discriminationGender discriminationBlack womenEating behaviorsHealthLocus of control2018-02-15Thesisborn digital