The current state of mental health in college students is a universal concern. Female college students are reporting more depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms than ever before. Physical activity and diet quality can positively influence mental health symptoms. Current research provides scarce evidence that examines the relationship of these health behaviors and outcomes in the Hispanic female population. The primary aim of this study is to examine the relationship between physical health behaviors and mental health outcomes in Hispanic female college students. This is a cross-sectional study using a self-report survey to collect data from approximately 109 Hispanic female college students through in-person recruitment and flyers placed on the university campus. Measures included the Dietary Quality Questionnaire, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire- Short Form, and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale. One-way analysis of variance tests and Pearson correlations were run to determine the relationship between mental health and physical activity and mental health and diet quality. We hypothesized that diet quality and physical activity would be negatively associated with depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms. We hypothesized that there would be significant group level differences between low, moderate, and high depression, anxiety, and stress on diet quality and that there would be significant group level differences between low, moderate, and high physical activity on depressive, anxiety, and stress scores. Pearson’s correlations found diet quality was negatively associated with depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms, but physical activity was not. We found that participants with better diet quality reported lower depressive, anxiety, and stress scores, but did not find physical activity group level differences with mental ii health symptoms. These findings implicate future research to develop and test nutritional programs that target depression, anxiety, and stress of college students, specifically Hispanic female college students.

The problem of this study was to assess the concerns and locus of control of black women enrolled in an urban community college district and to answer the following question. What is the relationship between each of those concerns and locus of control and each of the following demographic data: current hourly enrollment, number of college credits earned, age, marital status, number of dependent children, age of youngest child, estimated total annual income, and time of day of classes (whether the majority of their classes are during the day, at night, on Saturdays, any combination of the three or mostly telecourses)?