Student Research Report: Feeling Good; An Experiment Relating Mental Health and Exercise
In Spring 2022, students in Dr. Emily Stark’s Research Methods and Design course completed multiple hands-on data collection projects. They were also assigned a blog paper where they discussed one of the topics they chose to research and explained their findings to a general audience. The goal of this assignment was to give students an opportunity to explore a different form of writing from APA-style research papers. Some of these blog papers will be featured here to showcase the students’ findings. Please feel free to contact Dr. Stark through the contact form on this site for additional information about this course or the assignments used.
By Sadie Woods
The expression, “move it or lose it” takes on a different tone when you think about how your physical health impacts your mental health. I for one notice an immense difference in my mental health on days that I exercise; a productive day is a good day. If we were to exercise on a regular basis, our mental health would subsequently positively progress. For example, a structured questionnaire was used in a study to examine the association of risk behaviors with mental health and physical activity among Chinese adolescents (Xiangren, Zongyu, Wenzhen, & Xiuye, 2020). By randomly recruiting 4,630 students aged 16-18 years and administering a questionnaire, results illustrated that mental health and physical health go hand-in-hand. Physical exercise was found to be negatively associated with all measures of mental health problems such as depression, and also suicidality. Similarly, a study in Norway relates physical inactivity and mental health problems using a survey (Grasdalsmoen, Hege, Lonning, & Sivertsen, 2020). By examining the association between frequency, intensity, and duration of physical exercise and mental health problems, this study concluded that women with low levels of physical activity had a near three-fold increased odds of depression, compared to women who exercise every day.
My survey project was conducted for the course PSYC 211W Research Methods and Design, a course at Minnesota State University, Mankato, to examine the relationship between physical exercise and mental health. In order to test whether physical exercise impacts mental health, I created a “yes or no,” survey question relating to if a person partakes in physical activity or not, but also a Likert scale from 1-5, with one being, “strongly disagree,” and five, “strongly agree.” Additionally, college students were tested in this survey by using specific questions relating to physical activity such as, “How often do you engage in physical activity?” Responses for this specific question range on a scale from 1-3, where one is, “I do not engage in physical activity,” two, “I engage in physical activity 1-3 times a week,” and three, “I engage in physical activity 4-7+ times a week.” By using precise unbiased language, I was able to gather my data.
Next, I recruited and instructed participants to take my survey by using a digital link. Not only I, but also my classmates, posted the digital survey link to social media accounts such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Additionally, I shared the survey individually to classmates and coworkers who are college students via electronic mail and text message. By networking, I was able to gather enough participants in order to conduct my results.
I found a significant positive correlation between how many days a week a participant exercises and whether a participant feels a more positive mood due to exercising. Participants who exercise regularly had more positive mental health scores than those who were inactive. Also, participants agreed that their mental health or mood is increased throughout the week when exercising frequently.
Summarizing, as a person exercises more regularly, their mental health will also positively increase. This could be due to the endorphins that our bodies release after exercising. For example, as we exercise, we release dopamine which is a neurotransmitter that makes us feel pleasure. This pleasurable feeling boosts our mood or mental health by releasing action potentials in our brain.
However, there are limitations to my survey such as the small number of participants who took the survey. Subsequently, with a larger number of participants, my study could be more reliable. Human error is another limitation to my study that permits a degree of uncertainty. Likewise, other researchers could view my class’s survey and read the articles I found that relate to my study. They also should re-test the survey and compare data to past runs. You could also ask other questions in a future survey such as, “If you exercise, how is your mental health when you are not exercising?” Oppositely you could ask, “If you exercise, how is your mental health when exercising regularly.” We could also specifically ask people who do not exercise, “How is your mental health?”
As a college student and healthcare worker, I notice my own mental health depreciating when I am inactive and have also noticed poor mental health in friends and family that are not active. I believe studies that search for increase in well-being are important and should be used in society. Having energy and simply feeling good is essential to daily life, so let’s get to exercising!
References
Xiangren, Y, Zongyu, L, Wenzhen, Q, Xiuye, X. (2020). Clustering effects of health risk behavior on mental health and physical activity in Chinese adolescents. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 18, 211. https://hqlo.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12955-020-01468-z#citeas
Elmer, L. D., MacDonald, D. A., & Friedman, H. L. (2003). Transpersonal psychology, physical health, and mental health: Theory, research, and practice. The Humanistic Psychologist, 31(2-3), 159-181. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08873267.2003.9986929
Grasdalsmoen, M., Hege, R. E., Lønning, K. J., & Sivertsen, B. (2020). Physical exercise, mental health problems, and suicide attempts in university students. BMC Psychiatry, 20, 1-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02583-3