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The Effects Of Physical Activity And Mental Health

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Introduction Mental health is a major concern for the general population, but especially for university students (Reeves et al., 2011; Hunt and Eisenberg, 2010; Biddle and Asare, 2011). It is important to look at what causes mental health issues, such as psychological distress, and what can be done to help eliminate or treat them (Hunt and Eisenberg, 2010; Knowlden, Hackman, and Sharma, 2015; Biddle and Asare, 2011). One possible factor when looking at what could influence psychological distress is physical activity (Knowlden, Hackman, and Sharma, 2015). There have been countless studies on the role that exercise plays in mental (Knowlden, Hackman, and Sharma, 2015; Biddle and Asare, 2011; Mailey et al., 2012). Physical activity has been …show more content…

Most of the students were in their second year of study. The sample included 186 students, with approximately 60% female and 40% male. The mean age of the sample was 19.5 ± 1.54 years. The data was collected by means of a self-report survey. The professor of the KPE290 Research Design and Evaluation constructed a survey which incorporated many variables, including sex, age, physical activity levels, psychological distress, perceived stress levels, and self-esteem along with others. The students of the class were instructed to take some time to carefully fill in this self-reported survey online. The students were required to answer the questions as accurately as they could. It was also important to assure the students that their answers would be anonymous, especially due to the sensitive nature of some of the questions. This study focuses on physical activity levels and psychological distress. In order to measure physical activity levels, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used. This questionnaire is commonly used as a means of self-reporting physical activity levels (Craig et al., 2003; Bauman et al., 2011). In 2003, the IPAQ questionnaire was found to have acceptable reliability, as well as concurrent and criterion validity (Craig et al., 2003). The questions asked in the questionnaire inquire about time spent in low, moderate, and vigorous activity completed per week. The values obtained from these questions were

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