The Association of Physical Activity and Stress in College Students
Shaye Sedotal
University of New Orleans

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to measure the relationship between physical activity and stress levels among college students. The sample comprised of 27% males (N=18) and 73% (N=48) females with a mean age of 23.6 years and an age range of 19 to 54. 51% (N=34) of the participants were Caucasian, 22% (N=15) were African American, 9% (N=6) Hispanic, and 7% (N=10) were of other ethnic backgrounds. 0% (N=0) were freshman, 8% (N=5) were sophomores, 36% (N=24) were juniors, and 56% (N=37) were seniors. Participants completed questionnaires about stress and physical activity. Results indicated that the relationship between physical activity and stress levels among college students were significantly correlated. The benefits of regular physical activity have been shown to positively affect wellness by reducing stress in college students. This research contained limitations such as small, non-random sample size and limited amount of questions pertaining to the study in the survey.

The Association of Physical Activity and Stress in College Students
The transition into young adult hood, which is often marked by beginning college, can be a particularly stressful time. Having to balance classes, test, projects, extra curricular activities, and work can increase stress levels in any student. Stress that is caused by college is unavoidable but there are coping strategies that can help to lower these levels. A frequent nonmedical coping strategies among college students is physical activity (Aselton, 2012). Physical activity is known as a way of managing optimal health and preventing disease (Craft, Freund, Culpepper, Perna, 2007). In addition, The purpose of this study is to measure the relationship between physical activity and stress levels among college students.
Aselton (2012) was interested in finding out how depressed college students cope with their daily sources of stress. The study included 13 students who were either taking or have taken anti-depressants during their college career. Each participant completed six to eight online interviews with the researcher. The researcher found that students turned to nonmedical coping strategies, such as physical activity, to relieve stress more frequently than taking medication. Rutter, Weatherill, Krill, Orazem, Taft (2013) hypothesized that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and depressive symptoms would be related to both lower physical activity and poorer health. The researcher obtained self –reported questionnaires from 200 undergraduate students. Researchers used bivariate correlations to examine the relationships among the variables, and linear regression to examine the correlation of PTSD symptoms and depressive symptoms to health status. Cohen’s guidelines where then used to define the effect size. The researcher’s findings were consistent with the hypothesis. The results reflected the researcher’s expectation that PTSD symptoms and depressive symptoms were related to poorer physical and functional health at both the bivariate level and when observed together. Ensel and Lin (2004) were interested in comparing the well-being of individuals who exercised to the well-being of individuals who do not exercise. The researchers hypothesized that physical activity and distress had either a direct, mediate, moderate, or indirect relationship. A face-to-face interview was conducted with 1,261 participants, age 18 or older. All hypothesizes were supported except for the relationship that physical activity mediated the effects of stress. The researchers found that physical fitness has both a direct and moderate effect on psychological and physical stress. In conclusion, higher levels of well-being are associated to those individuals who do exercise. Galper, Trievdi, Barlow, Dunn, Kampert (2006) were interested in the relationship between physical activity and mental health of men and women. The study included 5,451 men and 1,277 women. Each participant completed a maximal fitness treadmill test followed by self-report questionnaires that measured habitual physical activity, depressive symptoms, and emotional well-being. Researchers observed that, among the men and women, increased physical activity was associated with lower depression symptoms and greater emotional well-being. Corazon et al. (2010) examined which types of activities participants engaged in to alleviate stress, as well as the association among physical activity and socioeconomic status, general health, and leisure time activities. The study included 7,797 individuals between 16 and 64 years old. Each individual completed a face-to-face interview followed by a self-administer questionnaire. In the end, results indicated that physical activity is related to an active leisure time and good health. Babyak et al. (2000) were interested in finding out if aerobic exercise was comparable to the results of pharmacotherapy to relieve depression. The study included 156 patients with clinical depression. Each patient was randomly assigned to the following control groups: exercise training, pharmacotherapy, or a combination of exercise and pharmacotherapy. Participants were evaluated for depression prior to treatment (at baseline), at the end of the 4-month treatment period, and 6 months after treatment ended. The researcher found that after the 4-month study, all of the patients showed evidence of improvement. After 10 months, participants that were resubmitted into the exercise group were less likely to relapse than participants in the medication group. Participants that continued with the exercise program on their own were unlikely to be diagnosed with depression during the follow up period. Elliot, Kennedy, Morgan, Anderson, Morris (2012) examined the relationship between physical activity levels, depressive/suicidal symptoms, and gender among 61,011 undergraduate students. The National College Health Assessment survey was randomly distributed to colleges nationwide. The study found that frequent physical activity was related to lower depression symptoms and lower thoughts of suicide. Spalding, Lyon, Steel, Hatfield (2004) were interested in the relationship between psychological stress and cardiovascular activity. In the study, 45 participants, between the ages 18 and 30, participated in a 6-week training of aerobic training, weight training, or a no-treatment condition to determine if aerobic training has an influence on cardiovascular activity levels. The study concluded that aerobic exercise lowered psychological stress. The current study aims to exam the relationships between physical activity and stress levels in college students. It is hypothesized that there will be a negative correlation between physical activity and stress levels in college students.
Method
Sample Data was collected as apart of a Psychology Research Methods class requirement at the University of New Orleans. 66 students were recruited to participate in the study. The sample comprised of 27% males (N=18) and 73% (N=48) females with a mean age of 23.6 years and an age range of 19 to 54. 51% (N=34) of the participants were Caucasian, 22% (N=15) were African American, 9% (N=6) Hispanic, and 7% (N=10) were of other ethnic backgrounds. 0% (N=0) were freshman, 8% (N=5) were sophomores, 36% (N=24) were juniors, and 56% (N=37) were seniors.
Measures
Participants completed a questionnaire about stress. The questionnaire consisted of 11 items on a 5 point scale (0= Never, 1=Seldom, 2=Sometimes, 3=Often, 4=Regularly). Sample questions include: “ How much do you experience tension headaches”, “How much do you experience lack of physical energy”, and “How much do you experience fatigue after adequate amount of sleep.” Participants completed a questionnaire about physical activity. The questionnaire consisted of 2 items. Each item had it’s own 4 point scale. The first item, “How often do you exercise?”, used the following scale: 0= Never, 1=1-2 a week, 2=2-3 times a week, 3= > 3 times a week. The second item, “When you do exercise, how long do you spend doing it?”, used a different scale, such as: 1= 60 minutes. Procedure Participants were recruited from several undergraduate Psychology classes at the University of New Orleans. The questionnaires were handed out anonymously near the end of class. The participants were told to complete the survey as honest as possible. They had approximately 10-15 minutes to complete it. All methods were approved and monitored by Dr. Costa and were in accordance with the Institutional Review Board at UNO.
Results
Before conducting analyses to test the main hypotheses, descriptive statistics were computed on stress and physical activity. For stress, the mean was 20.68 (SD= 10.23). For physical activity, 33% (N= 21) never engages in physical activity, 20% (N= 13) engages in physical activity 1 to 2 times per week, 28% (N= 18) engages in physical activity 2 to 3 times per week, and 19% (N= 12) engages in physical activity more than 3 times a week. Hypothesis 1 stated that there would be a negative correlation between physical activity and stress levels in college students. In order to test if a relationship existed, a Pearsons r correlation was computed. Results indicated that there were significant correlations between stress and physical activity (r = -.32, p = .01). Given this, the hypothesis was supported.
Discussion
This research is unique in that there are limited studies that have collectively researched the relationship of stress and physical activity in college students. The current study supported the hypothesis and found that the relationship between physical activity and stress levels among college students were significantly correlated. The benefits of regular physical activity have been shown to positively affect wellness by reducing stress in college students. Studies based on larger samples, such as Ensel and Lin (2004), have similar findings and found that physical fitness has both a direct and moderate effect on psychological and physical stress.
This research had several limitations. The sample consisted of a convenience sample. The participants were chosen based on convenience and do not represent the population properly because random sampling was not used. Another limitation of the study was the relatively small sample size. For this reason, these findings cannot be generalized to the broader community based on this study alone. The questionnaire used for the research was very limited to the amount of questions pertaining to stress and physical activity. This could limit the accurate representation of the variables that are being measured. In future research, random sampling and increased sample size should be improved. Students from various Universities should be randomly selected to participate in the survey, which would increase the experiments reliability and validity.

References
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Babyak, M., Blumenthal, J., Herman, S., Khatri, P., Doraiswamy, M., Moore, K., Craighean, E., Baldewicz, T., Krishnan, R., (2000) Exercise treatment for major depression: Maintenance of therapeutic benefit at 10 months. The Praeger handbook on stress and coping, 2, 529-540.
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Spalding, T., Lyon, L., Steel, D., Hatfield, B., (2004) Aerobic exercise training and cardiovascular reactivity to psychological stress in sedentary young normotensive men and women. Psychophysiology, 41, 552-562.