The Impact of Physical Activity Level on Mental Health: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Young Adults

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the role of physical activity on mental health. The study group consisted of 427 students studying at the university. Personal Information Form, International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form, Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale Short Form, Psychological Resilience Scale (Short Form) and Psychological Vulnerability Scale were used as data collection tools. The normal distribution of the data was analysed through skewness and kurtosis values. MANOVA, Chi-Square Test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and Multiple Stepwise Regression tests were used to analyse the data. The findings show that female students are more inactive and do less vigorous activities than males. Compared to these findings, the proportional distribution of physical activity level according to grade level is similar. Descriptive findings show that students have relatively high levels of psychological vulnerability. It was observed that mental health components were interrelated. Also, students who are physically active enough have higher levels of mental well-being and psychological resilience and lower levels of psychological vulnerability. Finally, it was observed that walking activity was the best predictor of students' psychological resilience and mental well-being, and together with moderate level of physical activity, walking activity led to a significant increase in the level of mental well-being.