Abstract
Energy expenditure has been implicated in the development and maintenance of anxiety (Collins et al., 2023). While physical activity has been promoted as protective against anxiety, sedentary behaviour also has been viewed (i.e., sitting) as an anxiety risk, with results from a meta-analysis revealing a small positive association between sedentary behavior and anxiety (Allen et al., 2019). While this positive relationship connotes dose-response (more sedentary, more anxiety), research with activity suggests that perception also may play a role (Gitzel et al., 2023). In that study, individuals who perceived that the amount of physical activity they engaged in was adequate for health reported lower levels of anxiety symptoms, regardless of actual activity. Building on that finding, this study examined which had a stronger relationship with anxiety – sitting behaviour or perceptions of sitting behaviour as threat to one’s health. University students (N=491) completed an online questionnaire assessing sedentary (sitting) behaviour (PASB-Q, Fowles et al., 2017), perceived threat of sitting behaviour to their health (developed for this study), and generalized anxiety symptoms (GAD-7, Spitzer et al., 2006). Results from a hierarchical regression revealed a significant relationship between sitting and anxiety symptoms (β=0.100, p=0.024) on step 1. On step 2, perceiving sitting amount as a threat to one’s health was associated with anxiety (β=0.196, p<0.001). Of interest, sitting behaviour disappeared (β=0.034, p=0.463) as a predictor of anxiety when perceived sitting threat was entered. This suggests that perceiving sitting as a health threat may be an important consideration when examining the sedentary/anxiety relationship.
