The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the degree of exercise on happiness index, depression and stress among college students in an effort to suggest the value of exercise. The subjects in this study were 230 male and female college s...
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the degree of exercise on happiness index, depression and stress among college students in an effort to suggest the value of exercise. The subjects in this study were 230 male and female college students, on whom a survey was conducted to gather data. The collected data were analyzed by the statistical package SPSS WIN 19.0 to address the research questions of the study, and frequency analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA and multiple regression analysis were carried out. The level of significance was set at a=.05. The findings of the study were as follows:
Concerning the happiness index of the college students by sociodemographic variables including gender, the female students were in significantly better social and intellectual health, which were two subfactors of happiness index. As to exercise career, there were significant differences according to that only in social health and intellectual health, which were two subfactors of happiness index. The group that exercised for six months or less ranked first, followed by the group with two years or more of exercise experience and the group that exercised for six months to less than two years. Whether they exercised or not produced no significant differences.
Second, regarding the depression index of the college students by sociodemographic variables, there were no significant gender gaps. As for exercise career, significant differences were found in depressive emotion, one of the subfactors of depression index. Depressive emotion was least prevailing in the group that exercised for six months or less, and was most prevailing in the group that exercised for two years or more. It implied that the exercise career of the college students was in inverse proportion to their depression index, and whether they worked out or not made no significant differences to their depression index.
Third, in relation to the stress index of the college students by sociodemographic variables, there were significant gender gaps in emotional stress only. The female students felt more emotional stress than the male students. Significant differences were found in every factor of emotional stress and physical stress according to exercise career. The group that exercised for six months to less than two years felt the least emotional stress, followed by the group with six months or less of exercise experience and the group with two years or more of exercise experience. The group that exercised for six months to less than two years was under the most physical stress, followed by the group with two years or more of exercise experience and the group with six months or less of exercise experience.
Whether they worked out or not made significant differences to their emotional stress and physical stress. The female students were under more emotional stress, and the male students had more physical stress.
Fourth, the happiness index of the college students exerted no significant influence on their depressive emotion, interpersonal failure and social malfunction.
Fifth, the happiness index of the college students exerted no significant influence on their emotional stress and physical stress, which were the subfactors of stress index.
Sixth, the depression index of the college students exerted a significant influence on their physical stress, one of the subfactors of stress index.
The findings of the study illustrated that gender, exercise career and whether to work out or not had a non-linear relationship with happiness index, depression index and stress index.