Jaclyn Hadfield
Assistant Professor
Bachelor's Degree: Hospitality and Tourism Administration, Southern Illinois University, 2014
Master's Degree: Physical Activity, Fitness, and Wellness, Indiana University, 2016
PhD: Health Behavior, Indiana University, 2020
Phone: (225) 578-4934
Email: jaclynhadfield@lsu.edu
Office: 2148 HPL Field House
Biography
Dr. Hadfield is a multilingual cross-cultural behavioral scientist specializing in assessing women’s physical activity beliefs and behaviors. In a world where women are less likely to be physically active than their male counterparts, she addresses gender movement inequities. Her work has examined the impact advertisement messaging has on women's physical activity engagement, beliefs women have about moving their bodies, and cross-cultural differences in fitness programming. She specializes in mixed-methods, cross-cultural, and multilingual research (English/Spanish/Italian). Although her research explores various domains of public health, she predominantly focuses on social and behavioral determinants of health beliefs and behaviors among women within the domain of physical activity using theory-based methods with a translational and community-based approach. Her research aims to identify salient factors to inclusively influence intervention designs and improve women’s physical activity behavioral engagement while reducing health disparities domestically and globally.
Dr. Hadfield leads the Women’s Exercise Culture and Behavior Lab. Her lab produces research focused on finding meaning in the relationship between social, cultural, and behavioral factors with health beliefs and behaviors among women. The lab primarily explores the relationship of health beliefs within physical activity/exercise/fitness behaviors using theory-based methods with a translational and community-based approach. The purpose of the lab’s research agenda is to create preventative health lifestyles for women to enhance overall well-being and bridge gender health inequity gaps domestically and globally. Even though the primary research focus lies within women’s movement behaviors, the innovative mixed methodologies used in the lab permeate into other areas that impact health, which invites collaborative and interdisciplinary scholarship opportunities. Studies in the lab investigate the impact messaging has on women's physical activity engagement, beliefs women have about moving their bodies, addressing racial-ethnic differences in women’s physical activity beliefs/behaviors, and cross-cultural differences in fitness programming. The lab produces multilingual (English/Spanish/Italian) research to uncover salient health determinants that address the unique needs of women to live healthy and active lives across the lifespan while bettering exercise culture in Louisiana, and beyond.