Abstract
There is growing support for the implementation of physical activity in the treatment of individuals with serious mental illness. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether affective response or enjoyment were related to adolescents' willingness to perform high-intensity interval training (HIIT) as an adjunct to mental health treatment. These secondary analyses examined data from 28 adolescent psychiatric inpatients who performed a single session of HIIT. Patients completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) before and after the exercise session. Following exercise, patients were asked to provide ratings from 1-10 for their enjoyment of HIIT and willingness to perform HIIT before therapy. Linear regression analyses were used to examine the association between enjoyment/affect responses to HIIT and willingness to perform HIIT before therapy, controlling for age and sex. Enjoyment of HIIT significantly explained willingness to perform HIIT when adjusting for age and sex, F(7,18)=2.6, p=.05, ?p2=.50 (adjusted R2=.28). Neither changes in positive (r=.09, p=.66) or negative affect (r=.28, p=.15) were related to patients' willingness to perform HIIT. Due to a bimodal distribution for participants' enjoyment of HIIT, correlation analyses examined the relationship between enjoyment and willingness to perform HIIT separately for low (? 5, n=12) and high-enjoyers (>5, n=16). There was a significant correlation between enjoyment and willingness to perform HIIT for low-enjoyers (r=.57, p=.05), however, this relationship was not observed for high-enjoyers (r=.03, p=.91). These findings suggest that exercise enjoyment may be an important factor for long-term engagement in HIIT as an adjunct for mental treatment.Acknowledgments: Patients and staff at the psychiatric inpatient unit at CHEO