Vigorous physical activity relates to rumination and perseveration in college students

Recent reports suggest that mental health concerns such as depression and anxiety are at all-time high levels in college students. Perseverative cognitions such as rumination, perseveration, and worry are generally related to worse mental health outcomes. In contrast, physical activity (PA) engagement relates to better mental health. However, the relationship between physical activity and perseverative cognitions is not well understood. This investigation explored the relationship between college students’ PA and three perseverative cognitions: rumination, perseveration, and worry. One hundred thirty-three undergraduates ( M age = 20.1 ± 1.3 years; 33.1% males) participated in this cross-sectional online study. Survey measures comprised basic demographic information, physical activity engagement, and measures of rumination, perseveration, worry, anxiety, and depression. Vigorous physical activity (VPA) was significantly correlated with all five mental health variables. More VPA (reported in minutes/week) was related to lower scores on the measures of rumination, perseveration, worry, anxiety, and depression ( r s ’s ≤ -.278, p ’s<.05). In initial univariate regression models, VPA was significantly associated with all three perseverative cognitions (ß’s ≤ -0.25, p ’s < .001, R 2 adj ≤ 0.09). Vigorous physical activity remained significantly associated with rumination and perseveration after controlling for gender, which was a significant covariate (ß’s ≤ -0.20, p ’s < .05, Model R 2 adj ≤ 0.15). These novel findings suggest that higher levels of VPA are associated with lower levels of rumination and perseveration in college students. Future lines of inquiry should build on the present investigation by exploring the consistency of this relationship across other age groups and/or populations, as well as the extent to which these findings could be leveraged in mental health interventions.