- Title
- Physical activity intensity and older adolescents’ stress: the ‘STress-Reactivity after Exercise in Senior Secondary EDucation’ (STRESSED) 3-arm randomised controlled trial
- Creator
- Smith, Jordan J.; Beauchamp, Mark R.; Puterman, Eli; Leahy, Angus A.; Valkenborghs, Sarah R.; Wade, Levi; Chen, Frances; Lubans, David R.
- Relation
- Psychology of Sport and Exercise Vol. 76, Issue January 2025, no. 102754
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2024.102754
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2025
- Description
- Objectives: Late adolescence (15–19 years) is a period of heightened susceptibility to stress, but regular physical activity may attenuate reactivity to stressors. We aimed to explore the effects of physical activity intensity on older adolescents’ stress-reactivity and self-reported mental health. Design and Methods: Three-arm randomised controlled trial in New South Wales, Australia (April–June 2021). Thirty-seven older adolescents (16.1 ± 0.2 years, 59.5 % female) were randomised to: i) non-active control (CON), ii) light-intensity physical activity (LPA), or iii) moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA). Physical activity groups participated in 2 x 20-min sessions/week for 6 weeks. Salivary cortisol (sCort) reactivity to induced stress was assessed using the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups and quantified as area under the curve (sCortAUC; Primary outcome). Secondary outcomes included peak cortisol (sCortPeak), subjective-reactivity, perceived stress, and non-specific psychological distress. Group differences were assessed using multiple linear regression and quantified using Cohen's d. Results: No statistically significant effects were observed for sCortAUC or sCortPeak and the pattern of effects for subjective-reactivity was inconsistent. Effects for self-reported mental health were also non-significant (p >.05 for all) but of meaningful magnitude, favouring LPA and MVPA over CON (d's = −0.38 to −0.54). Delivery fidelity was high, satisfaction was moderate-to-high, and there was no evidence of harm. However, recruitment, retention for sCort measures, and adherence were lower than expected. Conclusion: Suboptimal recruitment, retention, and adherence limited our ability to conclude on the effect of physical activity intensity on older adolescents’ sCort-reactivity to induced stress. We observed potentially meaningful effects on self-reported mental health for both physical activity conditions, which could be confirmed in a future powered trial.
- Subject
- school; intervention; cortisol; youth; fitness
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1520483
- Identifier
- uon:57479
- Identifier
- ISSN:1469-0292
- Rights
- © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
- Reviewed
- Hits: 17
- Visitors: 17
- Downloads: 1
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Publisher version (open access) | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |