Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114908

Daniel D. Adame, PhD, MSPH, CHES¹, Steven P. Cole, PhD², Thomas C. Johnson, EdD¹, and Sally A. Radell, MFA¹. (1) Department of Health, Physical Education and Dance, Emory University, Woodruff Physical Education Center 314A, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, 404-727-4092, phyedda@emory.edu, (2) Research Design Associates, 1315 Baptist Church Road, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598

The purpose of this study was to assess the relations between depression and amount of exercise, body image, and locus of control (LOC) during college students' first semester. Two-hundred-forty-two freshmen (135 women,107 men) enrolled in a personal health course completed the Adame, Cole, Johnson, and Matthiasson Amount of Exercise Scale, the Body-areas Satisfaction Scale of the Cash Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control Scale, and Rimon's Brief Depression Scale during the 1st and 14th weeks of Fall semester 2003. Women and men exercised less over the course of the semester and became less internal in locus of control. There was a significant increase in the depression scores for women. Women exercised less than men at the beginning of the semester (pretest) and had lower Body-areas Satisfaction scores at pretest and at the end of the semester (posttest). Multiple regression analyses revealed that at pretest, for women, higher depression scores were associated with LOC externality; for men, depression was associated with externality and low Body-areas Satisfaction. At posttest, for women, depression was associated with low amounts of exercise and low Body-areas Satisfaction; for men, as at pretest, depression was associated with externality and low Body-areas Satisfaction. With pretest and posttest measures in the regression models, adjusted R2 for posttest depression for women and men were .34 and .42, respectively. This study was undertaken to further elucidate depression in first year college students and the factors associated with its incidence in this vulnerable population.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Identify the relationships between depression and amount of exercise, body-image, and locus of control.
• Define locus of control and body-image.
• Describe the Adame, et al., Amount of Exercise Scale.
• Describe how amount of exercise, locus of control, body-image, and depression change during college students' first semester.

Keywords: Adolescent Health, Depression

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.