Abstract
Anxiety has been identified as a significant issue for university students (Woodgate et al. 2020). Higher levels of physical activity (PA) appear to be protective against the emergence of anxiety (Wanjau et al., 2023). Regarding dosage, guidelines suggest that 150 minutes of weekly MVPA (150MVPA) are required for health benefits (CSEP, 2025). As such, one might expect that attaining 150MVPA would be associated with lower anxiety. However, emerging research indicates that perceived activity adequacy (PAadeq) may also influence anxiety. In one study, PA levels were less related to anxiety when PAadeq was included (Sawatsky, 2024). The study purpose was to examine whether attaining 150MVPA or holding perceptions that one’s activity was adequate for health would be associated with screening probable cases of generalized anxiety disorder or not. Female university students (N=377) completed an online questionnaire assessing MVPA (Fowles et al, 2017), PAadeq (Zahrt & Crum, 2020), and generalized anxiety symptoms (GAD-7, Spitzer et al., 2006). MVPA and GAD-7 were split into binary variables – achieving 150MVPA or not, and scoring ≥10 (n=220) or not (n=157) on GAD-7, respectively. A binary logistic regression revealed that only PAadeq was related to GAD-7 screening scores (p=.01). Those perceiving their PA was adequate for health were more likely to report frequencies of anxiety symptoms that fell below the cutoff score of 10 for screening for an anxiety disorder. This suggests that PA adequacy perceptions may be a variable to consider when examining protective factors for generalized anxiety disorder in female students.
