I'm Stressed! I Must/can't Exercise Today! Effects Of Stage On Physical Activity And Stress.

Abstract

While only a handful of prospective studies have been conducted in this area, there is evidence that people engage in less physical activity upon encountering higher levels of psychological stress. Despite this, physical activity is often reported to be an effective coping mechanism to relieve stress. In addition, motivational differences exist between frequent and infrequent exercisers. As a result, it might be that the impact of stress on freely chosen physical activity would differ based on exercise stage of change. PURPOSE: Using a prospective design, we examined the relationship between stress and physical activity, while testing for a moderating effect of stages of change derived from the Transtheoretical Model. METHODS: 95 college-aged females (19.34 ± 2.08 yrs; 64.23 ± 2.03 in; 138.27 ± 29.92 lbs; 23.64 ± 4.91 BMI) were recruited from undergraduate classes and the local community. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires before a 6-week evaluation period. During this period, participants were asked to return a leisure-time physical activity log daily and to return a stress events scale weekly (Weekly Stress Inventory: Brantley, et al., 1997). RESULTS: Results of HLM analyses demonstrated that there was no effect of stress events frequency or intensity on physical activity. However, it was found that this effect was suppressed by exercise stage of change as stages of change interacted with stress (both event frequency and intensity) to effect the amount of total physical activity minutes reported per week (stress frequency, G = -2.61, SE = 0.95, t-ratio = -2.75, df = 76, p = 0.008; stress intensity, G = -0.69, SE = 0.25, t-ratio = -2.74, df = 76, p = 0.008). The stress - physical activity relationship was negative for those in the contemplation stage, positive for those in the maintenance stage, and non-existent for those in preparation and action phases. CONCLUSION: Results are indicative of stress - physical activity relationships that vary by exercise stage of change. Physical activity participation for those at an early stage of change (i.e., contemplation) appears to be negatively influenced by stressful experience, whereas those at the highest stage of change (i.e., maintenance) may exercise more under stress.