Association of physical fitness, physical activity and sedentary behaviors with positive and negative affect in children and adolescents

Abstract

Affect, physical fitness, physical activity and sedentary time play an important role in psychological and physical health, however, the association between those variables in youth remains still unknown. The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of physical fitness, physical activity and sedentary time on positive and negative affect in Spanish children and adolescents.

The research was carried out as part of the UP & DOWN study. 1490 healthy Spanish youths were recruited for the present study 542 children (n=272 girls; mean age 9.6 years) and 948 adolescents (n=454 girls; mean age 14.1 years). The Assessing Levels of Physical Activity -Fitness Extended Battery has been used to evaluate physical fitness. Physical activity and sedentary time has been assessed by accelerometry. Finally, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for children and adolescents has been used to assess affect. The associations between physical fitness, physical activity and sedentary time with positive and negative affect, were analysed independently using linear regression, adjusting for potential confounders (sex, pubertal status, body max. index, maternal and paternal education level). Sex was included as a confounder when the data were not analysed by gender.

The main findings and conclusions of this Doctoral Thesis were: i) Higher levels of physical fitness were associated with better positive affect in Spanish children and adolescents. Only muscular fitness was independently associated with positive affect (Study I); ii) Physical fitness was not associated with negative affect in Spanish children and adolescents (Study I); iii) Higher levels of moderate physical activity, vigorous physical activity, moderate to vigorous physical activity and total physical activity during physical education classes were associated with better positive affect in children girls (Study II); iv)Higher levels of light physical activity and total physical activity during weekends were associated with lower negative affect in children girls (Study II); v)Higher level of light physical activity during recess was associated with better positive affect in adolescent girls (Study II); vi) Higher levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity during physical education classes and vigorous physical activity during all day, weekdays, weekends, extracurricular activities and physical education classes were associated with lower levels of negative affect in adolescent girls (Study II); vii) Adolescent girls who meet the recommendations of 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity had a lower level of negative affect than those who did not meet the recommendations (Study II); viii) There was no association between different levels of physical activity and positive or negative affect for children and adolescents boys (Study II); ix) Higher sedentary time during school hours was associated with higher negative affect in adolescent boys. Adolescent boys in the lowest quartiles of sedentary time showed lower levels of negative affect during school hours (Study III); x) Higher sedentary time during physical education classes was associated with higher negative affect in adolescent girls (Study III); xi) There was no association between sedentary time and positive or negative affect for children boys and girls (Study III).

The result of this Doctoral Thesis enhance our understanding about physical fitness, physical activity and sedentary time in relation to positive and negative affect in Spanish children adolescents but future research are needed to confirm this preliminary results.