Associations Between Physical Activity, Residual Anxiety Symptoms and Cognitive Coping Strategies in Remitted Young Adults

Wiltjer, Marlene (2023) Associations Between Physical Activity, Residual Anxiety Symptoms and Cognitive Coping Strategies in Remitted Young Adults. Master thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Less than half of Dutch youth adhere to guidelines of physical activity, even though physical activity has many benefits for physical and mental health. The current study investigated associations between residual anxiety symptoms, cognitive coping strategies and mean minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) per day in adolescents in remission of an anxiety and/or depressive disorder. Using hierarchical multiple regression, scores of 90 adolescents on the Revised Child Anxiety Scale were regressed on the mean minutes of MVPA executed per day, tracked over 14 days by the Axivity AX3 with scores on the Utrecht Coping List for Adolescents as moderator. There were significant associations between residual anxiety symptoms and avoidant, passive and emotional expression coping. No associations were found between predictor residual anxiety symptoms, moderator maladaptive coping strategies and outcome variable MVPA. Furthermore, no moderating effect was found. Exploratory analyses did not find effects for adaptive coping strategies. Filtering out participants with depressive disorder exclusively did not influence the results. Thus, different effects of residual anxiety symptoms on MVPA could not be explained by (mal)adaptive coping strategies. In practice, adolescents in remission can focus on interventions aiming to improve maladaptive cognitive coping strategies as avoidant, palliative, passive and emotional expression coping to prevent increasing anxiety symptoms. This study emphasized the need for investigation on relations between anxiety symptoms and cognitive coping strategies. Predictive factors for the frequency of physical activity in remitted adolescents remain questioned and are suggested to explore in future research with qualitative designs. Keywords: moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, anxiety symptoms, cognitive coping strategies, young adults in remission

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Kooiman, B.E.A.M. and Nauta, M.H.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Clinical Psychology (CP) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	23 Mar 2023 15:21
Last Modified:	23 Mar 2023 15:21
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/1842

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