Relationships between mood states and daily habits in first-year college students

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Physical Education and Sport for Higher Education Vol. 18; pp. 75 - 83
• Main Authors: ODA, Hiroyuki, ISHIDO, Minenori, TANAKA, Chika NANAYAMA, NAKAMURA, Tomohiro, NISHIWAKI, Masato
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japanese Association of University Physical Eduation and Sports 2021; 公益社団法人 全国大学体育連合
• Subjects: exercise habits; freshman; lifestyle habits; Profile of Mood States (POMS); 初年次学生; 気分プロフィール（POMS）; 生活習慣; 運動習慣
• ISSN: 2434-7957
• DOI: 10.20723/jpeshe.18.0_75

[Background] Daily habits or exercise habits in first-year college students are well known to be important in getting used to college life and an improvement of academic ability. Limited small-scale studies report that mental health or mood states can affect daily habits or exercise habits, but there is a lack of robust findings of a large-scale study for college students at the same college and at the same academic year (i.e., for homogenous subjects). [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between mood states and daily habits or exercise habits in first-year college students. [Methods] This study was a cross-sectional study of 1030 male college freshmen. Mood states were assessed by the Japanese version of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) 2nd Edition-Adult Short and daily habits or exercise habits were assessed by questionnaire survey. [Results] Based on the total POMS score as an index of negative mood, the participants were assigned to four groups: Low, Normal, High, and Very high groups. Statistically significant differences were found in frequency of eating breakfast, quality of sleep, sleep duration, likes or dislikes of sports, years of sports experience, and fitness score. In particular, quality of sleep and fitness score were significantly lower and years of sports experience were significantly higher in Low group than other groups. Statistically significant trends were also observed in all parameters such as frequency of eating breakfast, quality of sleep, sleep duration, likes or dislikes of sports, years of sports experience, and fitness score. That is, with increasing levels of negative mood, these scores became worse in High and Very high groups than in Low group. Stepwise multiple-regression analysis for all the parameters also identified quality of sleep (β = 0.251), likes or dislikes of sports (β = 0.196), and frequency of eating breakfast (β = -0.081) as independent factors affecting negative mood states. [Conclusions] Therefore, these results indicate that negative mood states are associated with daily habits and exercise habits, and poor mood states can be associated with worse daily habits and exercise habits in first-year college students.