Smartwatch-Measured Stress, Perceptions Of Buddy Behavior, Well-being, Psychological Needs Satisfaction, And Goal Orientations Among Native American College Students

PURPOSE: Self-determination and achievement goal theories are commonly used in exercise and health promotion research. This study examined the effects of exercising with a “buddy” (i.e., a friend or partner). More specifically, the researchers were curious about how participants’ psychological and physiological responses with a buddy differed on the following variables: smartwatch-measured stress, basic psychological needs satisfaction (Autonomy: AU, Competence: CO, Relatedness: RE), goal orientations (Task Orientation: TO; Ego Orientation: EO), perceptions of exercise buddy behavior (Task Support: TS; Ego Support: ES), and well-being (WB). METHODS: Using purposive sampling, the researchers recruited 22 Native American female students (Age M = 22.32 ± 3.40) who voluntarily participated in the survey. Participants completed a questionnaire with the aforementioned variables and wore a smartwatch for a week to observe their stress response. Of the variables, only well-being was measured before and after the smartwatch observation. McDonald's ω coefficient for each scale appeared to be acceptable (ranges from .74 to .93). In addition, average and max stress were exported and used in analyses. To evaluate variability in their stress responses over the week, we computed standard deviations using their daily average stress (ASSD) and max stress (MSSD). Descriptive statistics and Kendall’s coefficients of rank correlation (τb) were computed to treat ordinal and continuous variables in correlations appropriately. RESULTS: Participants reported high on TO (M = 4.50 ± 0.40), relatively low EO (M = 2.55 ± 0.93), slightly higher scores than neutral on CO (M = 3.26 ± 0.80), AU (M = 3.49 ± 0.82), RE (M = 3.72 ± 0.77), and neutral on WBs (M pre = 3.40 ± 0.90; M post = 3.81 ± 0.81). The smartwatch measured stress indicated relatively low stress (M = 33.71 ± 8.01) over the week. Significant Kendall’s coefficients of rank correlation (p < .05) were found in between 1. CO and ASSD (τb = -.43), 2. AU and ASSD (τb = -.47), 3. RE and ASSD (τb = -.50), 4. TS and MSSD (τb = -.41), and 5. ES and MSSD (τb = .39). CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that the basic psychological needs satisfaction and task-involving supporting behaviors in exercise may help manage daily physiological stress responses well. Further discussion will be shared at the conference.