What we found...
Studies show those who participate in regular leisure-time activities show less signs and symptoms of depression.
A study conducted on the relationship between the amount of physical activity during leisure time and the symptoms of depression. This also took workplace, social support, and social engagement into consideration. Leisure activity was related to lower levels of depression while the workplace was not.
The study has also implied the social benefits were shown to have more importance than biological changes in the associations between symptoms of depression and physical activity.
According to the research article “Physical activity and depression among adolescents,” it showed that the adolescents who were more physically active had lowered risk of getting depressive symptoms (Wiles et al., 2012).
The method used in this research was a ‘Mood and Feelings Questionnaire’ (MFQ) that was filled out by almost 3,000 adolescents, as well as the participants wearing an accelerometer, a type of watch to register movements.
The total amount of physical activity performed was related to decreased depressive symptoms. However, the time spend in either moderate or vigorous activity did not have a correlation with depressive symptoms (Wiles et al., 2012).
Mentioned in the article, “depression is ranked amongst the top five contributors to the global burden of disease (...)” (Wiles et al., 2012). Having depression while being an adolescent will have huge impact on many parts of life; such as education, social life, etc.
If the depressive symptoms are not handled at a young age, it will carry over later in life. This is why staying active is very important because it lower these symptoms and it can make a huge difference in someone’s life.
Researchers have claimed that numerous psychological mechanisms can explain the relationship between exercise and mental health. They proposed that exercise results in higher levels physical self-concept and self-esteem and may help to reduce both depression and anxiety. Likewise, self-concept and self-esteem have been shown to be positively related to participation in physical activity.