Zooming into daily life: within-person associations between physical activity and affect in young adults

Abstract

Objective: Negative affect in daily life is linked to poorer mental and physical health. Activity could serve as an effective, low-cost intervention to improve affect. However, few prior studies have assessed physical activity and affect in everyday life, limiting the ecological validity of prior findings. This study investigates whether daily activity is associated with negative and positive evening affect in young adults.Design: Young adults (N = 189, Mdn = 23.00) participated in an intensive longitudinal study over 10 consecutive days.Main Outcome Measures: Participants wore accelerometers to objectively assess moderate-to-vigorous physical activity continuously throughout the day and reported their affect in time-stamped online evening diaries before going to sleep.Results: On days when participants engaged in more activity than usual, they reported not only less depressed and angry evening affect but also more vigor and serenity in the evening.Conclusion: Young adults showed both less negative and more positive affect on days with more activity. Physical activity is a promising health promotion strategy for physical and mental well-being. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Introduction How we feel is crucial for mental and physical health. Transient and subjective episodes of feelings that can be easily changed by context constitute affect (Cranford et al., 2006). Negative affect (e.g., depressed, angry, and anxious affect) in everyday life is associated with poorer mental and physical health (Charles, Piazza, Mogle, Sliwinski, & Almeida, 2013; Kiecolt-Glaser, McGuire, Robles, & Glaser, 2002). Positive affect (e.g., vigor, serenity) in everyday life is associated with, for instance, longevity (Diener & Chan, 2011).Short-term fluctuations in negative and positive affect from day to day or within days are a common phenomenon (Eid & Diener, 1999). In addition, during early adulthood (between 20 and 30 years of age), negative affect is reported more frequently (Stone, Schwartz, Broderick, & Deaton, 2010) and positive affect is lower than in later adulthood (Carstensen et al., 2011). Because of the association between affect in everyday life and health, this age group is the focus of the present study. Identifying processes that may help young adults improve their everyday affective experiences is important for both individuals (e.g., to improve health and well-being) and for society (e.g., to reduce health care costs) and may have benefits for health promotion. Prior studies on the association between physical activity and affectPhysical activity is "any bodily movement […] healthy samples: Conn, 2010). Importantly, the intensity and frequency of physical activity seem to moderate the effect on affect (Dunn, Trivedi, & O'Neal, 2001).Engaging regularly in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity has been linked to...

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The Effects of a Physical Activity Program on Mood States in College Students

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