Effects of a naturally occurring stressor on health behaviors and their psychosocial correlates

ABSTRACT

Demands of a university semester and approaching final academic examinations could induce increased anxiety and fatigue, which might prompt deteriorations in health behaviors. Female undergraduate nursing and health promotion students (M_age = 23.8 years) with overweight/obesity (n = 30) and without overweight/obesity (n = 62) completed validated measures just prior to final exams, and after recalling behaviors and perceptions at semester start. There were significant increases in tension, fatigue, anxiety-related emotional eating, and sweets; and significant decreases in eating- and exercise-related self-regulation, fruit/vegetable intake, and physical activity. Overweight/obese participants had significantly more reductions in self-regulation, and increases in sweets. Self-regulation significantly mediated relationships between changes in tension and the consumption of both fruits/vegetables and sweets, and change in anxiety-related emotional eating was not a significant moderator of the mood–behavior change relationships. Change in self-regulation significantly mediated the relationship between increase in fatigue and reduction in physical activity. Changes in fruit/vegetable intake, sweets consumption, and physical activity significantly predicted weight change during the semester when participants’ initial BMI was entered into the regression equation. Results suggested that the mood-related changes in fruit/vegetable intake, sweets consumption, and physical activity were largely through changes in participants’ self-regulatory processes. Possible interventions were suggested.

KEYWORDS:

• Stress
• anxiety
• fatigue
• nutrition
• physical activity
• self-regulation

Acknowledgments

Ms. Kelsey E. Brown and Ms. Maria Mata are acknowledged for their management of the data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific funfing.