Stress is associated with exercise differently among individuals with higher and lower eating disorder symptoms: An ecological momentary assessment study

Abstract

Objective Stress is associated with the maintenance of eating disorders and exercise behaviors. However, it is unclear how stress is associated with exercise and vice-versa among individuals with higher levels of eating disorder symptoms in daily life. The current study tested the moderating effect of eating disorder symptoms on the relationships between: (1) daily stress and later exercise behavior and (2) daily exercise behavior and later stress. Method Female college students [N = 129, mean age = 19.19 (SD = 1.40)] completed the Eating Disorder Inventory - 2. Participants then completed measures of stress and exercise four times daily across seven days using an automated telephone ecological momentary assessment system. Data were analyzed using multi-level models. Results Drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms, and body dissatisfaction significantly moderated the relationship between daily stress and later exercise (ps = 0.01 – 0.05), such that higher daily stress predicted higher later exercise only in individuals who were low (but not average or high) in drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms, and body dissatisfaction symptoms. Discussion Stress is associated with exercise differentially depending on individuals’ eating disorder symptoms. Our findings suggest that only individuals with lower levels of eating disorder symptoms exercise when stressed.

Characterizing Lifetime and Daily Experiences of Weight Stigma among Sexual Minority Women with Overweight and Obesity: A Descriptive Study

“…Prompts occurred randomly between 9:00 AM and 9:30 PM, and were at least two hours apart. Prompts not answered within 75 min of receipt counted as missing data, a standard that has been used in prior EMA studies [38].…”

Testing an emotion regulation model of physical activity in adolescents with anorexia nervosa: A pilot ecological momentary assessment

“…These few findings are in line with community‐based EMA studies, indicating that higher daily physical activity in young adults is associated with less negative affect at the end of day (Haas, Schmid, Stadler, Reuter, & Gawrilow, ) and momentary physical activity is associated with subsequent increases in positive affect within 15 min (Schwerdtfeger, Eberhardt, & Chmitorz, ). Evidence for a decrease in momentary negative affect after physical activity is considered inconclusive for community‐based samples (Liao, Shonkoff, & Dunton, 2015; Schwerdtfeger et al, ), and stress is only associated with exercise in individuals with lower levels of eating disorder symptoms (Sala, Brosof, Rosenfield, Fernandez, & Levinson, ). Furthermore, states of momentary positive and in some studies also negative affect are associated with subsequent increases in physical activity (Liao, Shonkoff, & Dunton, ; Schwerdtfeger, Eberhardt, Chmitorz, & Schaller, ).…”

PSIXPORT: Mobile App for Ecological Momentary Assessment of Psychological Dimensions in Sport Injury

“…Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is an assessment approach that allows collecting information about sampling subjects' experiences and behaviors in real-time (or closer to real-time) in their natural environment (Shiffman et al, 2008). Ecological Momentary Assessment approach, compared to retrospective methods, provides multiple advantages such as collecting real-time information about subjects' habits and behaviors from their context (Hicks et al, 2010) or allowing to explore antecedents and consequences after individuals' behaviors appearance (Sala et al, 2017). Consequently, an EMA approach deals with some of the limitations of traditional retrospective methods' such as inaccurate subjects' retrospective answers due to their autobiographical memory biases (Schwarz, 2007).…”

“…Ecological momentary assessment approach has been also incorporated to sport psychology research and recent times have shown several studies using such an approach to assess different variables. For instance, Sala et al ( 2017 ) carried out a study analyzing the relationships between daily stress and exercise behaviors in female undergraduate students gathering subjects' exercise behaviors and affective responses to exercise using handheld electronic diaries. Williams et al ( 2016 ) studied the mediation effects of affective responses to exercise on exercise adherence.…”