Abstract
Physical activity is beneficial for human physical health and well-being. Accordingly, the association between physical activity and mood in everyday life has been a subject of several Ambulatory Assessment studies. This mechanism has been studied in children, adults, and the elderly, but neglected in adolescents. It is critical to examine this mechanism in adolescents because adolescence plays a key role in human development and adolescents' physical activity behavior translates into their behavior in adulthood. We investigated adolescents' mood in relation to distinct physical activities: incidental activity such as climbing stairs; exercise activity, such as skating; and sports, such as playing soccer. We equipped 134 adolescents aged 12-17years with accelerometers and GPS-triggered electronic diaries to use in their everyday life. Adolescents reported on mood repeatedly in real time across 7days, and these data were analyzed using multilevel-modeling. After incidental activity, adolescents felt better and more energized. After exercise, adolescents felt better but less calm. After sports, adolescents felt less energized. Analyses of the time course of the effects confirmed our findings. Physical activity influences mood in adolescents' everyday life, but has distinct effects depending on the kind of physical activity. Our results suggest incidental and exercise activities entail higher post-bout valence compared to sports in competitive settings. These findings may serve as an important empirical basis for the targeted application of distinct physical activities to foster well-being in adolescence.
Highlights
Physical activity can improve well-being[1] and fosters physical health.[2]
Anger may be an emotion that is related to a specific event and may pass quickly, but being in an irritable mood may not be related to an specific event and may last longer with no specific timepoint of beginning or ending[6]
It has yet to be studied whether these findings translate into adolescents’ everyday life and whether there are distinct contextual effects
Summary
Physical activity can improve well-being[1] and fosters physical health.[2]. 81% of adolescents globally (aged 11-17 years) do not reach the level of physical activity necessary to sustain health that is recommended by the World Health Organization.[1]. Adolescents’ physical activity was shown to be positively associated with mood dimensions, that is, energetic arousal and valence and negatively associated with calmness.[21] studies found distinct mood responses to sports vs exercises.[21,22] it has yet to be studied whether these findings translate into adolescents’ everyday life (ecological validity) and whether there are distinct contextual effects (eg based on the type and setting of physical activity). Despite the converging evidence from AA studies on the real-life association between physical activity and mood dimensions in children,[19] adults,[17,18] and the elderly,[8] the investigation of this psychological mechanism in adolescents has so far been neglected.
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