Published Article / Adolescent and young adult university students' decreasing physical activity levels impact considerably on their psychological stress levels. Acute and long-term bouts of exercise can reduce psychological stress (Taylor, 2000). In this study, the Leisure-time Exercise Questionnaire and the Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale were used to determine students' physical activity levels and emotional states before their first and second test weeks, in order to ascertain the effect of therapeutic recreational activities on their appraisals of their feelings and emotions during academically demanding times. The recreational therapy was presented between these test weeks. Results indicated that both the physical activity levels and the emotional state of the experimental group improved. Future studies could include determining which recreation activity has the greatest therapeutic effect while better controlling participants in both groups. In view of its potential value for relieving stress, therapeutic recreation could be used as a technique in relieving stress prior to tests and examinations.

This research programme had three principal objectives. First, to assess the stability of the exercise heart rate-music tempo preference relationship and its relevance to a range of psychological outcomes. Second, to explore the influence of two personal factors (motivational orientation and dominant attentional style) in a naturalistic exercise-to-music setting. Third, to examine means by which to enhance the exercise experience above and below the ventilatory threshold. In Study 1, a mixed-methods approach was employed to capture responses to differing music tempo conditions across a range of exercise intensities. Results in Study 1 did not support a cubic relationship (Karageorghis et al., 2011) but rather a quadratic one, and there was a weak association between the optimal choice of music tempo and positive psychological outcomes. Music conditions reduced the number of associative thoughts by ~10% across all exercise intensities. Study 2 employed questionnaires with a large sample of female participants (n = 417) attending exercise-to-music classes. Results indicate that motivational orientation and attentional style (Association vs. Dissociation) influence responses to an exercise-to-music class. Study 3 examined the effects of external stimuli (music and video) on psychological variables at moderate and high exercise intensities. Findings served to demonstrate that manipulations of attentional focus can have a salient influence on affect and enjoyment even during high-intensity exercise. The contributions of the research programme include providing empirical evidence that attention can be manipulated during high-intensity exercise using theoretically-guided music selections, and music in combination with video footage, which enhance the exercise experience. Further, the research programme advances understanding of how motivational orientation and attentional style influence responses to music during exercise.

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Fysisk aktivitet, stress och psykosocial arbetsmiljö är viktiga faktorer på och utanför arbetsplatsen. Tidigare forskning har visat att fysisk aktivitet kan påverka den subjektiva stressupplevelsen. En arbetsmiljö präglad av höga krav, för lite kontroll och socialt stöd kan leda till negativa känslor och stress. Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka deltagarnas träningsgrad och dess betydelse för upplevelse av allmän stress och fysisk aktivitet. Psykosocial miljö undersöks och sätts i relation till stressupplevelse, anställningstid, ålder och träningsgrad genom multipla regressionsanalyser. Deltagare i undersökningen var 82 anställda, varav 54 kvinnor. Resultaten visade bland annat att träningsgrad har betydelse för den allmänna upplevelsen av stress och fysisk aktivitet. Slutsatsen att psykosocial arbetsmiljö, stress och fysisk aktivitet kan interagera med varandra är av värde att lyfta fram. Detta kan bidra till ökad medvetenhet för organisationer och vara ett hälsofrämjande verktyg för att minska negativt upplevd stress på och utanför arbetsplatsen.

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4 pp. / Why healthy meetings? Many choices go into having a successful 4-H club meeting, training, community workshop, or grower meeting. Extension staff, and volunteers should include healthy lifestyle behaviors into their education and "Walk the Talk" for healthy living in Arizona. Learn how your next meeting or event can promote healthy habits like good nutrition, physical activity and safe food.

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Previous theory-driven research studies in the activity area examining descriptive norms (e.g., Priebe & Spink, 2011, 2012) have demonstrated that these perceptions about others’ behaviour can influence individual behaviour. Although the results of these studies are informative, many questions still remain. The studies comprising this thesis add to the extant literature by improving upon methodological limitations of past work, extending the examination of the effects of norms on activity to include both injunctive norms (i.e., perceptions about others’ approval) and combined norms (aligned and misaligned), examining other activity-related cognitions (self-efficacy) and behaviour (sedentary), as well as examining characteristics of the norm reference group. Three independent experimental studies were conducted. Study 1 examined the effects of a descriptive norm message on muscular endurance and task self-efficacy in Pilates participants. Results revealed greater endurance and higher task self-efficacy among participants in the descriptive norm information condition as compared to control group participants. Study 2 compared four information conditions: injunctive, aligned descriptive and injunctive, misaligned descriptive and injunctive, and control with respect to their influence on muscular endurance and efficacy in a student population. Individuals receiving the aligned norms had the longest post-condition muscular endurance and greater task efficacy than all other conditions. No differences emerged between the injunctive, misaligned, and control conditions. Study 3, an online experimental field study, examined the effects of descriptive norms on both light activity and sedentary behaviour in an office setting. Study 3 also examined the effects of norms when the reference group differed in personal or contextual similarity. No differences emerged between participants receiving information about groups that varied in similarity. However, after receiving an email with descriptive norm information about co-workers’ behaviour, light activity increased and sitting behaviour decreased within the office setting across all conditions. Results from these three studies suggest the following: (1) aligned norms seem to be more effective than misaligned, (2) standalone injunctive norms might not be salient in the activity setting, (3) descriptive norms can impact objective activity behaviour, self-report light activity and sedentary behaviour, and (4) descriptive norms also may inform related cognitive constructs such as task self-efficacy.

Background: Because it is a strong determinant of chronic disease and mortality risk, physical activity is a health behaviour that is measured in most large health surveys. Questionnaires are the most commonly used method for measuring physical activity in health surveys. In the early 1990’s, an international physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) was created to allow researchers from across the globe to employ the same questionnaire within their country. Several studies have been conducted on the IPAQ to determine whether the responses obtained are comparable when the questionnaire is administered on multiple occasions (reliability) and to determine the ability of the questionnaire to obtain the same physical activity result when compared to other direct measures, considered as “gold standard” (validity). However, none of these studies have been conducted in Mexico. Objective: Examine: 1) the reliability of the IPAQ among Mexican adults by comparing minutes per week (min/wk) spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) from the IPAQ administered two times, 2) the validity of the IPAQ surveys by comparing IPAQ min/wk of MVPA to those obtained by the accelerometer. Methods: 267 Mexican adults who worked in a factory in Mexico City participated. IPAQ was applied in a face-to-face interview during a first clinic visit. Participants received an accelerometer (motion sensor that measures and record physical activity) and wore it consecutively for the next 9 days. In a second visit, participants returned the accelerometer and completed a second IPAQ. The research team cleaned and analyzed the accelerometer data using standardized techniques. Results from the two IPAQ and the accelerometer were compared using the appropriate statistical tests. Results: IPAQ1 and IPAQ2 measures of MVPA were significantly correlated to each other (r=0.55, p<0.01). The MVPA (min/week) measures from IPAQ1 and IPAQ2 were only modestly correlated with the accelerometer measures (r=0.26 and r=0.31, p<0.01). The percentage of the participants who were classified as inactive according to the World Health Organization physical activity guidelines was 18.0% in IPAQ1, 25.1% in IPAQ2, and 28.2% for the accelerometer. Conclusions: IPAQ was modestly correlated to each other and it was lowly correlated to values obtained by the accelerometer. Since IPAQ has been used to obtain physical activity prevalence worldwide, caution should be taken when this instrument is used. Future research should be focused on the importance of including direct measures to measure physical activity levels within epidemiological surveys. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-04-18 15:12:21.626

Total weekly moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) accumulated in different patterns has not been well studied: it is not yet known whether sporadic MVPA (periods of <10 consecutive minutes) or whether the weekly frequency of MVPA is associated with health benefits in adults. For this reason, the physical activity guidelines recommend that adults aged 18 to 64 years accumulate at least 150 minutes of MVPA per week in bouts of at least 10 minutes. The overall objective of this thesis was therefore to study the relationships between different patterns of MVPA and the metabolic syndrome (MetS) – a clustering of risk factors that increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in adults. Both manuscripts in this thesis used data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS), a nationally-representative sample of Canadians. The MetS was determined from direct physical measurements and blood samples, while physical activity levels were assessed by accelerometers (also known as activity monitors). Complex statistical models were used to determine the relationship between patterns of MVPA and the MetS. The first study assessed whether bouted MVPA was associated with lower odds for MetS than an equal volume of sporadic MVPA. Results showed that both bouted and sporadic MVPA were equally related to the MetS; even small bursts of sporadic MVPA <3 minutes in length were meaningful when predicting the MetS. The second study evaluated whether more frequent weekly MVPA was associated with lower odds for the MetS in physically active adults. Among those who were considered physically active, there was no difference in the odds of the MetS between those who were infrequently or frequently active. Together, the results of this thesis suggest that the pattern in which weekly MVPA is accumulated is unimportant, provided that sufficient energy is expended. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-07-10 16:01:22.091