Title: Exploring the Reciprocal Relationship Between Stress and Physical Activity
Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Eli Puterman
Committee Members: Dr. Mark Beauchamp and Dr. Bruno Zumbo
Chair: Dr. Daniel Gamu
Abstract: Physical activity (PA) offers an array of health benefits including improved mental health and decreased risk of multiple clinical physical morbidities and premature mortality. Despite the health benefits associated with PA, more than half of Canadian adults self-report participating in levels of PA below the recommended guidelines. One potential driver of inadequate levels of PA is psychological stress, which has been shown to moderate the relationship between PA initiation and long-term behaviour change. This relationship is often confounded by the reciprocal relationship (i.e., participation in PA can reduce perceptions of stress). It is currently unclear the extent to which perceptions of psychological stress influence subsequent physical active behaviours. The purpose of my proposed doctoral dissertation is to quantify associations between perceptions of psychological stress and subsequent PA. First, I will conduct a systematic review with meta-analysis of all empirical articles that measure psychological stress and subsequent physical activities (Study 1). In order to account for the short-term reciprocal effects (i.e., effects of PA on stress), I will also analyse previously collected weekly data from an exercise RCT using cross-lagged panel models. This modeling allows the simultaneous modeling of stress on PA as well as PA on stress with the purpose of controlling for reciprocal effects (Study 2). Extending Study 2, I will use the same methodology with a large national dataset collected in the United States over a 30-year period to assess whether long-term stress impacts temporally distal PA behaviours (Experiment 3). Together, these studies have theoretical importance by quantifying one of the commonly assumed, but less studied, pathways to physical inactivity.