Amount of exercise, overweight preoccupation and depression in a pretest-posttest study of college freshman women and men

The purpose of this study was to investigate amount of exercise, body image overweight preoccupation, and depression during college students' first semester. During the 1st (pretest) and 14th weeks (posttest) of a fall semester personal health course, 240 freshmen (135 women, 105 men) completed the Adame, Cole, Johnson, and Matthiasson Amount of Exercise Scale, Cash Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, and Rimon's Brief Depression Scale. Correlations revealed that, at pretest, higher depression scores were related to higher overweight preoccupation for women and men. At pretest and posttest, for women and men, higher overweight preoccupation was related to higher weight and body mass index. At pretest, overweight preoccupation also was related to greater amount of exercise for women. At posttest, higher depression scores were related to lower amounts of exercise for women. Over the course of the semester, mean depression scores increased for women. Analysis of variance revealed a significant increase in depression scores for women who decreased in exercise from pretest to posttest, but not for the women whose exercise increased or stayed the same. Overweight preoccupation decreased over the course of the semester for women and men. Weight increased for 45% of the women and 29% of the men; weight decreased for 29% of the women and 23% of the men. This study was undertaken to further understand college students' vulnerability to depression.