Exercise-related coping beliefs predict physical activity levels in response to naturally occurring stress: A daily diary study of college students

Abstract

Objective The present study sought to examine whether beliefs about physical activity as a means of coping with stress predicted college students’ exercise levels following naturally occurring stressors. Participants: One-hundred and twenty-seven undergraduate students were recruited from psychology courses at a large, urban university in the southwestern United States. Methods: Participants completed baseline measures and daily assessments for two weeks; data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Results: Beliefs about the coping properties of physical activity significantly moderated the effects of daily stress (b = 0.19, SE = 0.09, p = .02), and combined daily and chronic stress (b = 0.01, SE = 0.01, p < .01), on students’ daily exercise. Conclusions: College students’ beliefs about physical activity are associated with changes in their daily exercise following exposure to naturally-occurring stressors. Such beliefs may be amenable to intervention to promote adaptive coping with stress and enhanced physical activity.

Keywords:

• College students
• coping
• exercise
• physical activity
• stress

Acknowledgments

The author would like to express gratitude to Dr. Constance Hammen for her valuable input and guidance in developing this project, and to undergraduate research assistants Richa Vakharia, Jake Gavenas, and Allison Zimmerman for their assistance collecting study data.

Conflict of interest

The author has no conflicts of interest to report.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee at the University of California, Los Angeles and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.