Purpose: A primary contributor to obesity is an increase in unhealthy eating habits, such as skipping breakfast, which has been strongly associated with overeating, weight gain, and obesity.  Nearly 30% of young adults skip breakfast every day and 60% report eating breakfast infrequently.  The objective of this study was to determine if frequency of breakfast consumption is associated with markers of wellbeing such as anxiety, depression, and sleep.

Methods: Students at the University of Arkansas were asked to participate in the Exercise is Medicine questionnaire which assessed eating behavior; depression, anxiety, and stress using DASS21; and sleep using the Pittsburgh Quality Sleep Index (PSQI).  703 undergraduate students (36% female) completed eating behavior questions and DASS21 and 590 completed the eating behavior survey and PSQI.  Data was analyzed using ANOVA to assess the relationship between eating breakfast and wellbeing outcomes, adjusted for sex.

Results: Participants were frequent breakfast skippers with 26.7 % reporting never eating breakfast, 34.6% ate breakfast 1-3 times per week, 21.9% ate breakfast 4-6 days per week, and 16.8% ate breakfast 7 days per week.  The median score for depression was 6 (25^th-75^th, 2-14) with 10.1% of participants reporting mild, 12.7% reporting moderate, 5.3% reporting severe and 10% reporting extremely severe depression.  Skipping breakfast every day was associated with higher depression scores compared to eating breakfast 1-3 times per week (-1.1, 95%CI:-2.1, -0.1, p=0.033), 4-6 times per week (-1.5, 95%CI: -2.6, -0.4, p=0.010), and 7 days (-2.6, 95%CI: -3.8, -1.4, p<0.001).  However, skipping breakfast was not associated with anxiety (p=0.624) or stress (p=0.861). The mean score for sleep was 5(SD 2.6) with 53.2% of participants classified as poor sleepers.  Skipping breakfast was significantly associated with poor sleep score (p=0.10).  Participants who skipped breakfast had worse sleep compared to individuals who ate breakfast 7 days per week (-0.9, 95%CI:-1.5, -0.2, p=0.15).

Conclusions: Breakfast skipping is associated with depression and poor sleep in young adults.  Future interventions for young adults targeting breakfast may be a good strategy for improving depression and sleep. Additional research is needed to understand the association of breakfast skipping and breakfast composition on markers of wellbeing.

Purpose: Intuitive eating, or a person’s ability to eat in accordance with their body’s cues for hunger and satiety, has become a recent focus of research due to its associations with healthy eating behaviour and wellbeing. Intuitive eating is considered related to the mind-body connection, but limited investigation has focussed on mind-body factors that predict intuitive eating. The present study aimed to develop better understanding of mind-body skills (e.g., interoceptive awareness, alexithymia, self-compassion) associated with intuitive eating, which may therefore allow for identification of treatment targets. It was expected that interoceptive awareness, self-compassion, and body appreciation would positively predict intuitive eating when relevant covariates were accounted for, and that alexithymia would be negatively associated.

Methods: A cross-sectional, survey based design was used. Participants were 226 adults (79% female, mean age 23.78 years), recruited via local university and social media platforms. All participants completed the survey online; measures of interoceptive awareness, self-compassion, body appreciation, alexithymia and intuitive eating. They also provided their estimated height and weight, from which body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the relative importance of mind-body connection predictors, controlling for relevant covariates (age, gender, BMI).

Results: Bivariate correlations showed intuitive eating to be positively associated with interoceptive awareness, self-compassion and body appreciation, and negatively correlated with BMI. In the regression analysis, while self-compassion (β=.21) and body appreciation (β=.32) significantly predicted intuitive eating, interoceptive awareness no longer showed a significant association. Of the covariates, only BMI showed a significant association (β=-.20). Of the components of self-compassion, self-kindness and mindfulness were the most important factors for intuitive eating. The full model explained close to 40% of the variance in intuitive eating.

Conclusions: Self-compassion and body appreciation may be important targets to facilitate intuitive eating. Of note, the extent to which one is subjectively aware of and understands one’s own body signals (interoceptive awareness and alexithymia) may be less important for intuitive eating when other relevant factors are accounted for. This has implications for future research and intervention focussed on promotion of intuitive eating.

Purpose: Mental well-being can be conceptualized as two intersecting continua: mental illness (presence/absence of mental illness) and mental health (languishing/flourishing). Consequently, it is possible to both have a mental illness (e.g., depression) yet still flourish. Together, mental illness and mental health combine to form an individual’s complete mental health status (CMHS). The purpose of this study was to examine if youth CMHS is associated with adherence to the Canadian 24-hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth (physical activity (PA), total screen time (ST), sleep).

Methods: This study reports cross-sectional student-level data from Year 7 (2018-19) of the COMPASS study. Canadian secondary school students (grades 9-12) completed questionnaires assessing health behaviours, flourishing/languishing (F/L), and high/low depressive symptoms (+DS/-DS). Students were classified into one of four mental health states: F/-DS, F/+DS, L/-DS, L/+DS. Generalized linear models were used to compare adherence to the PA, ST, and sleep guidelines between the groups, after controlling for sex, age, ethnicity, weight status, school location and household income.

Results: A total of 29,133 students (49.8% female, M_age=15.3yrs) were included in the analyses as F/-DS (n=11,749), F/+DS (n=2951), L/-DS (n=3940), or L/+DS (n=10,493). Regarding ST, individuals who were F/-DS (β=1.12, SE=0.06), F/+DS (β=0.87, SE=0.10), or L/-DS (β=0.50, SE=0.10) were more likely to meet the ST guidelines compared to those who were L/+DS (p’s<.0001). Similarly for sleep, individuals who were F/-DS (β=1.05, SE=0.03), F/+DS (β=0.82, SE=0.04), or L/-DS (β= 0.57, SE=0.04) were more likely to meet the sleep guidelines compared to those who were L/+DS (p’s<.0001). Likelihood of meeting the PA guidelines was higher for individuals who were F/-DS (β=0.39, SE=0.03), or F/+DS (β=0.42, SE=0.05) compared to those who were L/+DS. However, individuals classified as L/-DS (β=-0.18, SE=0.04) were less likely to meet the PA guidelines (p’s<.0001).

Conclusion: This is the first study to show relationships between the two-continua model of mental well-being and engagement in movement behaviours. Youth CMHS was associated with both ST and sleep. Youth who self-report flourishing were more likely to achieve PA guidelines irrespective of depressive symptoms. These findings reinforce the need for research examining positive mental health constructs independent of mental illness.

Purpose: A randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted with 115 fathers (29 - 53 years) and 153 daughters (4 - 12 years), who participated in the Dads And Daughters Exercising and Empowered (DADEE) program. This was the first physical activity program internationally to explicitly target fathers as an agent for change to improve their daughters’ physical activity levels, sport skills and social emotional well-being. In the pilot RCT, intervention fathers and daughters significantly increased their physical activity levels at post-intervention (2-months), and these increases were maintained at 9-months. In addition, intervention daughters experienced greater improvements in social-emotional well-being, grew closer to their fathers, and improved their sport skills. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of a father-daughter physical activity program on family functioning and psychosocial outcomes for girls. 

Methods: The impact of the program on family functioning and girls’ psychosocial outcomes was explored qualitatively through one-on-one, semi-structured telephone interviews with a random sample of 23 intervention fathers (mean (SD) age: 41.4(4.8) years). Audio recordings (mean length (SD): 45 minutes (6.7)) were transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were thematically analysed by an independent researcher using a mixed inductive and deductive thematic approach.

Results: Fathers reported that the program had a positive effect on their daughters’ social emotional well-being. For example, daughters were willing to try new challenges and became more persistent. Fathers improved their own lifestyle behaviours as a result of new knowledge and parenting skills and a determination to be a better father for their daughter. Moreover, fathers felt a physically and emotionally closer bond with their daughters. Participants also identified a range of improvements within the family, including improved communication with their wife/partner and enhanced family dynamics. Almost all fathers gained a newfound understanding of the negative impact gender stereotypes had on their daughters’ development. Finally, a number of strategies were identified as to how the program improved these outcomes.

Conclusion: Engaging fathers and daughters in physical activity programs and improving their knowledge and parenting skills may have substantive benefits for daughters’ well-being as well as holistic benefits for fathers and their families.

Purpose: Evidence is emerging that physical inactivity and screen-time (ST) are associated with mental health of adolescents; however, little is known about their possible dose-response relationships. This study aimed to examine dose-response relationships of physical activity (PA) and ST with mental wellbeing among adolescents.  

Methods: We analysed data from the 2013/2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) in 199,409 adolescents (13.59±1.63 years; 51% females), living in 39 European/North American countries. Mental wellbeing was assessed with the 4-item HBSC symptom checklist psychological subscale, and total symptom score (range 0-16) was dichotomised as “good” and “poor” based on median split. Adolescents reported on frequency of days they did PA for ≥60 mins and daily hours of ST. We used multilevel logistic regression analysis, adjusted for a set of covariates. The results are presented in odds ratio (OR) with their 95% confidence interval (CI).  

Findings: Multilevel modelling showed a negative dose-response relation of PA and a positive dose-response relation of ST with poor-wellbeing. Compared with those who did not engage in PA during the past week, adolescents who did PA for ≥60 mins on 1-2 days, 3-4 days, 5-6 days, and all 7 days had 20% (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.73-0.87), 29% (0.71 [0.64-0.78]), 36% (0.64 [0.58-0.71]), and 37% (0.63 [0.56-0.70]), respectively, lower odds of poor-wellbeing. The odds of poor-wellbeing increased linearly with the increase in duration of ST with the ORs being 1.20 (1.14-1.27) for 3-4 hours/day, 1.39 (1.31-1.48) for 5-6 hours/day, 1.62 (1.51-1.74) for 7-8 hours/day, and 2.03 (1.89-2.18) for ≥9 hours/day when compared with ST ≤2 hours/day. Sex-stratified analyses suggested that the relationship estimates were greater in males than females for both PA and ST.

Conclusions: Insufficient PA and ST were significantly associated with poor-wellbeing in a dose-response manner, and the dose-responses were more prominent for ST than PA. Promoting activity behaviours, by increasing PA and/or decreasing ST, can benefit adolescents’ wellbeing in the region. Prospective studies are needed to understand the causal pathways of these relationships.

Purpose: Mental health is an important global indicator for health and well-being. Psychological distress, referring to symptoms of depression and anxiety, is related to increased risks of chronic diseases and mortality. To prevent and manage psychological distress, there is a need to better understand its modifiable lifestyle factors. There is increasing interest in the association between sedentary behaviour (e.g. sitting), a highly prevalent behaviour in modern society, and psychological distress. The limited evidence is mixed and mainly based on studies using self-reported sedentary time. Few studies have investigated device-based total sedentary time, and none have examined device-based domain-specific sedentary time in relation to psychological distress. This study aims to investigate whether device-based total and domain-specific sedentary behaviour were associated with psychological distress among adults.

Methods: Flemish employees (n=401; 20-64 years; 42.6% male; 83.6% in ‘physically active' occupation) of seven organisations in service and production sectors participated. Sedentary behaviour (exposure) was assessed by two Axivity accelerometers (one on thigh, one between shoulders) for 2-4 consecutive working days. Based on diary completion, domain-specific sedentary behaviour (leisure vs work) was assessed. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was used to assess psychological distress (outcome). Adjusted hierarchical multiple regression models were conducted to test the associations between total, leisure and work-related sedentary behaviour and psychological distress.

Results: About 35% had high levels of psychological distress (GHQ score ≥2/12). The average sedentary time was 7.2 hours/day in total, 4.6 hours/day during leisure and 2.8 hours/day at work. Device-based total (B=-0.009, 95%CI: -0.087,0.068), leisure-time (B=0.001, 95%CI: -0.017,0.018) and work-related (B=0.004, 95%CI: -0.006,0.015) sedentary behaviour were not significantly associated with psychological distress.

Conclusion: This study did not show significant associations between accelerometer-based total and domain-specific sedentary behaviour and psychological distress among employees, working in a physically active occupation. Since this is one of the first studies looking at this association using device-based exposure variables, more research using a similar approach is needed.