(PS12-56) U.S. College Students’ Opinions of Exercise as a Mental Health Management Strategy: Feasibility, Barriers, and Between-group Differences

Poor mental health is a growing concern for college students in the United States, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic (Legros & Boyraz, 2023). American college students experience higher rates of depression and anxiety than the rest of the U.S. population (Rallis et al., 2023) and the majority meet criteria for at least one mental illness (Flannery, 2023). Even for those without a psychiatric diagnosis, high stress is a serious concern (Ai et al., 2023). Unfortunately, college counseling centers are often understaffed relative to the increasing numbers of students seeking care (Dunley & Papadopoulos, 2019), and many are experiencing increased counselor turnover and burnout (Walden et al., 2020). Colleges are in need of accessible strategies for promoting student well-being.

Exercise has proven to be an effective mental health treatment, with recent work suggesting equivalent or superior efficacy vs. pharmaceutical interventions and empirically-supported psychotherapy (Singh et al., 2023). Further, it is low-cost, easily disseminable, and does not require a highly-trained provider to administer. Ai et al. (2023) found that low-intensity exercise significantly benefits college students’ mental health, and formal exercise programs can reduce undergraduates’ depression symptoms more than usual care (i.e., counseling center; Guo et al., 2020). However, much of this work has been done outside of the United States, in settings that differ greatly from the cultural and structural environment in which American college students are grounded. Further, many important questions remain unanswered, such as what U.S. college students know (or don’t know) about the effect of exercise on mental health; perceived facilitators and barriers to exercise on college campuses; and whether there any between-group differences in student responses. The current study aims to address these gaps in the literature.

Data collection ended on 2/29/24 and data analysis will be complete by mid-May. Participants (42 currently-enrolled students at a selective, mid-Atlantic small liberal arts college) completed measures of depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS-21; Brown et al., 1997) and self-care behaviors (Self-Care Inventory; National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d.), followed by a 30-minute focus group (10 focus groups total). Focus groups used a flexible script to guide discussion of students’ experiences with campus mental health resources, physical activity habits, and barriers inhibiting physical activity. Focus groups were recorded and transcribed verbatim and will be coded by a team of 3 researchers. Coding disparities will be discussed to consensus. Findings will be compared between upperclassmen and underclassmen, student athletes vs. non-athletes, and students with better vs. worse mental health levels (DASS-21 median split), to explore any different themes that emerge between these groups.

This study is the first of which we are aware to examine U.S. college students’ opinions of exercise as a strategy for managing mental health. The results have the potential to help address the growing college student mental health crisis in a low-cost, easily disseminable way.