The Health & Culture project represents the convergence of two rapidly expanding areas of pediatric obesity research; the role of cultural identity and identity-based motivation in shaping health promotion behaviors. The investigators recently submitted several papers for publication examining associations between cultural identity, physical activity, diet and diabetes-related metabolic risk factors in obese African- American adolescents. Results demonstrate that for obese African-American adolescents, biculturalism was negatively associated with diabetes risk (via increased pancreatic beta-cell function assessed during a frequently-sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test). These relationships remained significant after controlling for household socioeconomic status, sex, pubertal maturation, fat/fat-free mass, physical activity and diet. These exciting findings peeked our interest in the area of cultural psychology, particularly as it relates to racial/ethnic disparities in pediatric obesity. Moreover, these preliminary data extend the findings of others who have pointed to the important role of cultural identity in shaping health and health behaviors. The researchers are advancing this area of research further by examining the influence of identity-based motivation in the context of cultural identity. Because identity-based motivation is a modifiable psychosocial mechanism, a richer and more in depth understanding of how identity-based motivation may help to inform culturally-tailored interventions could have a large public health impact by improving health promotion behaviors in racial/ethnic minority youth and reducing the economic burden of pediatric obesity.