The Impact of Exercise and Duration on Anxiety

Jaime Greenwood

Anxiety and the many people affected by it.

  • 1 in 10 Americans are affected by anxiety throughout the lifespan.

  • One way to reduce anxiety and the negative affects it comes with is exercise

  • However, is exercise always beneficial in the reduction of anxiety or are there variables that might instead result in exercise doing more harm than good?

Exercise

  • Construct definition
    • For the purpose of this study exercise will be defined as the means of engaging in consistent physical activity for a set duration.
  • Operational definition
    • Exercise was manipulated by assigning participants to either an exercise condition where they partake in jumping jacks for an allotted amount of time or a reading condition where the activity is sedentary.

Duration

  • Construct definition
    • For the purpose of this study duration will be defined as the time spent on an activity.
  • Operational definition
    • Duration was manipulated by assigning participants to either a long condition where they engaged in an activity for a minute and a half or a short condition where they engaged in an activity for forty-five seconds.

Anxiety

  • Construct definition
    • For the purpose of this study anxiety will be defined as the presence of nervousness, feelings of worry, and perceived anxiety.
  • Operational definition
    • Anxiety was measured through self-reported responses to questions about nervousness, feeling of worry, and perceived anxiety.

Hypotheses

Exercise
Exercise Reading
Duration Short Less Anxiety Less Anxiety
Long More Anxiety Less Anxiety

Anxiety Figure

My Figure

Discussion

  • Lacked strong internal validity
  • Strongest strength is random assignment
  • This study opens the doorway for future research exploring variables that may mitigate the positive effects of exercise on anxiety

Maximizing the benefits of exercise on anxiety

  • This study found no relationship on duration mitigating positive effects of exercise on anxiety.
    • While not significant, this study found the exercise group reported less anxiety than the reading group
  • Since some research has found variables mitigating the benefits exercise is known to have on anxiety, it is an exciting find that this study did not show duration to be among those.