Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 108 E Dean Keeton St, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 5, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.
Department of Communication, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall McClatchy Hall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2019 Sep;236:112400. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112400. Epub 2019 Jul 9.
Regular exercise is frequently recommended as a means of combating the negative effects of stress on mental health. But, among college students, exercise frequency remains below recommended levels.
To better understand exercising behaviors in college students, we examined how exercise patterns change across an academic semester and how these changes relate to personality traits and mental well-being.
We conducted two longitudinal experience sampling studies, using data from four cohorts of students, spanning four semesters (Fall 2015 - Spring 2017). In Study 1, a large sample of United States college students (cohort 1; N = 1126) reported the number of days they exercised and their levels of happiness, stress, sadness, and anxiety each week over the course of one academic semester (13 weeks). Study 2 (cohorts 2-4; N = 1973) was conducted to replicate our exploratory results from Study 1.
Using latent growth curve modeling, we observed the same normative pattern of change across both studies: The average student exercised twice during the first week of the semester and showed consistent decreases in exercise frequency in following weeks. Across both studies, higher initial levels of exercise frequency at the start of the semester were consistently related to higher extraversion, higher conscientiousness, and lower neuroticism. Furthermore, exercise frequency and mental well-being fluctuated together after controlling for time trends in the data: In weeks during which students exercised more than predicted, they also reported being happier and less anxious.
We contextualize the findings with regard to past research and discuss how they can be applied in behavior change interventions to promote students' well-being.
有规律的锻炼通常被推荐作为一种对抗压力对心理健康负面影响的方法。但是，在大学生群体中，锻炼的频率仍然低于推荐水平。
为了更好地了解大学生的锻炼行为，我们研究了锻炼模式如何在一个学期内发生变化，以及这些变化与人格特质和心理健康的关系。
我们进行了两项纵向经验抽样研究，使用了来自四个学生队列的数据，跨越了四个学期（2015 年秋季至 2017 年春季）。在研究 1 中，一个由大量美国大学生组成的样本（队列 1；N=1126）报告了他们在一个学术学期（13 周）内每周锻炼的天数以及他们的快乐、压力、悲伤和焦虑水平。研究 2（队列 2-4；N=1973）是为了复制我们在研究 1 中的探索性结果而进行的。
使用潜在增长曲线建模，我们在两个研究中都观察到了相同的变化模式：平均学生在学期的第一周锻炼两次，随后几周的锻炼频率持续下降。在两个研究中，学期开始时较高的初始锻炼频率水平与较高的外向性、较高的尽责性和较低的神经质有关。此外，在控制数据中的时间趋势后，锻炼频率和心理健康状况一起波动：在学生锻炼多于预期的几周中，他们也报告更快乐和焦虑程度更低。
我们根据过去的研究来解释这些发现，并讨论它们如何在促进学生健康的行为改变干预中应用。
