Physical Fitness Levels Do Not Affect Stress Levels in a Sample of Norwegian Adolescents

The relationship between stress and health-related quality of life and the mediating role of self-efficacy in Norwegian adolescents: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

During the transitional phase from childhood to adulthood, adolescents encounter many changes and challenges. Stress is associated with reduced health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in adolescents and, thus, impacts all aspects of their life. Adolescents' thoughts and beliefs in their capacity may be essential with regard to their subjective perception of stress and coping with it. Insights into the complexity of stress and exploration of the possible underlying mechanisms in adolescence are needed. We sought to describe stress, HRQOL, and self-efficacy and explore the association between stress and HRQOL by testing for self-efficacy as a possible mediator in adolescents.

METHODS

In total, 696 school-based adolescents aged 14-15 years participated in this study. Participants were recruited from 22 schools in the Eastern and Southern parts of Norway. All participants completed an electronic survey in their respective classrooms. The survey included demographic data, the Perceived Stress Questionnaire, the KIDSCREEN-27 questionnaire measuring HRQOL, and the General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale. Statistical analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro for SPSS Statistics software by Andrew Hayes model 4.

RESULTS

Descriptive analyses revealed overall low levels of stress with a score of 0.29 (SD, 0.15). Nevertheless, stress was negatively associated with all HRQOL subscales: physical well-being (B =  - 25.60), psychological well-being (B =  - 38.43), autonomy and parents (B =  - 28.84), social support and peers (B =  - 21.05), and school environment (B =  - 30.28). Furthermore, these respective associations were all mediated by self-efficacy, which explained approximately one-fifth of the reduction in HRQOL. The highest degree of mediation and, thus, the largest indirect effect was estimated for the HRQOL subscale physical well-being (31.7%).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings extend prior research on the mechanisms underlying the relationship between perceived stress and HRQOL in adolescents. They demonstrated that perceived stress explained most of the reduction in the HRQOL after adjusting for the effect of self-efficacy. Hence, stress itself appears to be an important target for future interventions to enhance HRQOL, rather than purely focusing on increasing self-efficacy to enhance the HRQOL in adolescents. Our findings highlight the importance of a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms to develop strategic and accurate interventions for adolescents.

Association Between Motor Competence, Physical Fitness, and Academic Achievement in Physical Education in 13- to 16-Year-Old School Children

In physical education (PE), both assessment practices and choice of teaching content indicate that pupil-related factors such as motor competence and physical fitness potentially influence pupils' academic achievement in PE. However, neither of these factors are explicitly expressed as assessment criteria in the Norwegian PE-curriculum. Hence, the aim of the current study was to investigate potential differences in motor competence and physical fitness between pupils with different academic achievements in PE. Forty-five boys and 31 girls (N = 76) from grades 8 to 10 in the lower secondary school participated in this study. In addition to collecting pupils' final grade in PE, as a proxy for academic achievement, they were assessed on the Test of Motor Competence (placing bricks, building bricks, heal-to-toe-walking, and walking/running in slopes) and four task items from the Test of Physical fitness (standing broad jump, pushing medicine ball, running 20 m as fast as possible, and reduced Cooper test). In the main analysis, the total score for motor competence and physical fitness, as well as their respective task items, were compared between pupils with different grades (i.e., 3 or 4, 5, 6). A one-way ANOVA revealed neither significant difference between pupils with different grades in overall motor competence (total score) nor the respective task items for fine motor assessment or the gross motor task heal-to-toe-walking. However, there was a large difference between pupils with different grades in performance of the gross motor task walking/running in slopes, where pupils receiving a grade of 6 and 5 completed the task significantly faster compared to their peers with a grade of 3 or 4. Furthermore, a one-way ANOVA indicated moderate-to-large differences between pupils with different grades in the total score of physical fitness and performance in three of the four respective task items (i.e., standing broad jump, running 20 m as fast as possible, and reduced Cooper test). Pupils with a grade of 6 had a significantly greater total score of physical fitness and jumped longer compared to pupils with a grade of 5 and 3 or 4. Additionally, pupils with a grade of 6 ran significantly faster as opposed to pupils with a grade of 3 or 4. Performance on the reduced Cooper test was significantly different between all groups of grades, with the distance covered being progressively increased from pupils receiving a grade of 3 or 4 to 6, respectively. These results indicate that physical fitness levels and one component of motor competence may influence pupils' academic achievement in PE. Since neither certain levels of gross motor competence nor physical fitness are explicitly stated as assessment criteria in the Norwegian PE curriculum, these findings may indicate a lack of alignment between PE-teachers' assessment practice and the curriculum's intentions. It is argued that PE-teachers should be aware of how these individual constraints may influence pupils' academic achievement in PE so that all pupils are given equal opportunities to meet the described learning outcomes.

Associations between Self-Esteem, Psychological Stress, and the Risk of Exercise Dependence

Body concerns and stress-related disorders are increasing in the younger population in a wide range of nations. Studies find links between both self-worth, exercise dependence, and self-esteem in relation to stress, but few have considered all three variables in relation to one another. The present study explored whether the co-appearance of high levels of psychological distress, and low levels of self-esteem may be a vulnerability factor for developing exercise dependence by studying the links between self-esteem, psychological stress, and exercise dependence. A standardized cross-sectional questionnaire was completed by 203 regular exercisers attending two gyms (mean age: 35.9 years). The variables self-esteem, psychological distress, and exercise dependence were all significantly correlated with each other, even after weekly exercise amount, age, and gender had been accounted for. Those who exercised for more than 9 h per week had a significantly higher score on stress and exercise dependence symptoms, and a lower score on self-esteem compared with the remaining groups. One could hypothesize that low self-esteem is a vulnerability factor and high psychological stress a maintenance factor for an exercise-dependent person. It is argued that more focus should be directed toward the negative consequences of excessive exercise.

Health-related quality of life is strongly associated with self-efficacy, self-esteem, loneliness, and stress in 14-15-year-old adolescents: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

To enhance and better understand health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in adolescents, it is important to study factors associated with HRQOL. The present study aimed to assess possible associations between sociodemographic variables, self-efficacy, self-esteem, pain, sleep, loneliness, stress and HRQOL in 14 to 15-year-old adolescents.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was performed among 696 adolescents (14-15 years) in a school-based setting. Sociodemographic variables, self-efficacy, self-esteem, pain, sleep, loneliness and stress were analyzed. The variables were all assessed with well-validated instruments. HRQOL was analyzed using KIDSCREEN 27. Analyses included Chi-square, independent t-tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, linear regression analyses and hierarchical regression analyses. The results from linear regression models were expressed as standardized beta.

RESULTS

The adolescents generally reported high levels of HRQOL. However, girls scored significantly worse on HRQOL, self-efficacy, self-esteem, pain, sleep, loneliness and stress compared to boys. Using hierarchical regression analyses we found that Self-efficacy (beta = 0.11-0.24), Self-esteem: (beta = 0.12-0.21), Loneliness: (beta = - 0.24 to - 0.45) and Stress: (beta = - 0.26 to - 0.34) revealed the strongest associations with the HRQOL dimensions. Sociodemographic-, pain- and sleep related covariates were all significantly associated with some of the KIDSCREEN subscales, however their effect on the outcome was smaller than for the psychosocial variables listed above. Being a girl, not living with both parents, not having both parents working, being absent from school more than 4 days, having pain and having lack of enough sleep were all independently negatively associated with HRQOL.

CONCLUSIONS

HRQOL is strongly associated with self-efficacy, self-esteem, loneliness and stress in 14 to 15-year-old adolescents. Our findings indicate that positive psychosocial factors such as self-efficacy and self-esteem might play a buffer role for negative psychosocial factors (e.g. stress) in adolescents. Further, our results show that girls score significantly worse on factors that are associated to HRQOL compared to boys. To improve HRQOL in school-based populations of adolescents, we suggest that future interventions should aim to strengthen self-efficacy and self-esteem. We recommend gender specific interventions.

Correlation of physical fitness with psychological well-being, stress, and depression in Korean adults

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between physical fitness and psychological well-being, stress, and depression in Korean adults. Participants were 160 adults aged 40-70 years living in the metropolitan area of Incheon. Results were collected from random sample of main measurements from Incheon fitness center of National Fitness Award Project (2019). We assessed participants using physical fitness test (national fitness award), Psychosocial well-being index short form, Perceived Stress Scale, Geriatric Depression Scale. The data were analyzed Pearson and Spearman rank correlation analysis, and linear was conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 25.0. The re-sults indicated there were statistically significant associations between psychological well-being and agility, quick response; stress and flexibil-ity; depression and strength endurance strength, body fat. In addition, analysis showed that strength, endurance strength, body fat of physical fitness factors could significantly predict depression, flexibility could significantly predict stress, agility and quick response could significant-ly predict psychological well-being.

Relationship Between the Practice of Physical Activity and Physical Fitness in Physical Education Students: The Integrated Regulation As a Mediating Variable

The practice of physical activity (PA) contributes to the prevention of chronic diseases such as obesity, metabolic syndrome or cardiovascular diseases, being also directly related to the individual’s physical fitness. Therefore, it is necessary to measure and monitoring the levels of PA in childhood and adolescence, since it may be useful to describe their current health status and the association with physical fitness, as well as to reveal putative consequences in the future. Within the educational field, it has been shown that physical education (PE) classes are a favorable context for the creation of healthy physical-sports habits and self-determined motivation could be a key for explaining the level of PA practice. For this reason, the purpose of this research was to study the mediating role of integrated regulation (IR) on the relationship between PA and physical fitness in children and adolescents. A total of 325 students between 11 and 14 years old participated in the study. The level of PA was estimated through the specific Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C), while motivation and IR were measured by using the Perceived Locus of Causality scale (PLOC-2). In addition, physical fitness was measured through the Eurofit fitness battery of tests, composed of three body composition measures and seven tests of different physical capacities. The physical fitness score showed no differences when genders were compared. After regression analysis, the resulting models revealed a good adjustment and correlation between PA practice and physical fitness (β = 0.173; p < 0.001), being established through the macro Process that this relationship is partially conditioned by the IR (β = 0.122; p = 0.03). ROC curve analysis estimated the score of 5.88 as a cut-off point to discriminate between levels of IR for students, classified as physically active or not (AUC = 0.67; p < 0.001). The conclusions from these main and other complementary analyses reporting complete mediations, suggest that the IR could be decisive in predicting and explaining the relationship between the practice of PA and physical fitness at these ages, highlighting its importance for a greater adherence to the practice.