Examining College Students’ Mental Health Outcomes Based On Exercise Environment Preferences

Exercise has been recognized as a coping mechanism that can help promote college students’ mental and emotional well-being. Recent studies highlight a need to explore potential differences in mental health outcomes based on indoor versus outdoor exercise preferences. Additionally, studies did not focus on the mental health aspects of college students in relation to exercise environment preferences. PURPOSE: To examine the relationship between mental health and exercise preferences for college students. METHODS: An email with a link to a 20-item survey was sent to the entire student body at a southeastern university and remained open for three weeks. The following measures were included: a) International Physical Activity Questionnaire - Short Form to measure physical activity in MET-min/week, b) Positive Mental Health Scale (PMH) to record self-identified positive mental health, c) three questions asked exercise location preference, d) demographics (i.e. age, gender identity, race, etc). RESULTS: Overall, 277 participants provided consent. Most survey participants who provided demographic information were White (47.1%), female (49.3%), and enrolled as an undergraduate student (92.5%). A larger percentage reported preferring both indoor and outdoor exercise (43%), followed by indoor exercise only (36.5%). After removing one univariate outlier, Pearson correlations revealed significant associations between student-athlete status and total MET-min/week r(179) = -.211, p = .004. Chi-squared analysis showed significant differences by race/ethnicity for exercise location preferences, 𝜒;;;;;2(8, N = 175) = 21.98, p = .005. The one-way ANCOVA, controlling for MET-min/week and student-athlete status was not significant, F(2,175) =. 77, p = .48. When student athletes were excluded from analysis, there was a significant correlation between MET-min/week and PMH r(164) = .16, p = .042. CONCLUSIONS: We did not find a significant relationship between exercise location preference and PMH scores. However, our results suggest that exercise location preferences differ by race/ethnic groups and further validated that physical activity supports mental and emotional well-being. Additional research is needed to understand how individual characteristics influence exercise preferences.