A Comprehensive Study Of Intervention On Physical Exercises In The Depressive Mood Of College Students

As society is changing with each passing day and campus life is getting richer and more colorful,two phenomena are worthy of note:one is that even though people pay more and more attention to problems of mental health,psychological stress and suicide could not be overlooked.On the other hand,more and more people realize that physical exercises can enhance both physical and mental well-being, hence the school sports and public sports have been on the rise.The practice and research of college students’ mental health show that very few students going for sports are involved in the cases of suicide motivated by depression.Depressive mood is a state of negative emotion between mental health and depression.One of its obvious behavioral characteristics is idleness and reluctance to do exercises,which indicate that physical exercises may have strong positive effects on the level of individual depression.Objectives and methods:Based on literature review,experimental researches and questionnaires,the present study made biological,psychological and sociological explorations into the effects of physical exercises on helping depressive college students with the aim of deeper understanding of the roles that physical exercises play in the improvement of mental well-being and meanwhile providing effective theoretical basis for maintaining individual mental health by means of physical exercises.This paper consists of three parts:one is the experiment on bilogical mechanism of physical exercises in the intervention of animals and human beings with depression;the second is the study of the effects of physical exercises on the psychological improvement of the college students with depressive mood;the third is the study of the sociological effects of physical exercises on depressive mood of college students in terms of their social interaction and social support.Results:1.Biological study:the exercise intervention research on 24 rats with depression showed that compared with the control group,monoamine neurotransmitters such as 5-HT and DA content in the hippocampus increased significantly in the model group(p＜0.05)after exercise.Observations of moderate exercises of college students with depressive mood(total 12 weeks,3 times per week, 60 minutes each time)revealed that serum neurotransmitters NE、5—HT,NE content of the study group tended to improve(p＜0.10).2.Psychological study:A study of the intervention effects of physical exercise on 120 depressive college students was made by questionnaires and experiments. The results showed that moderate antagonism sport or non-antagonism sport(3 times per week,60 minutes each time) could significantly reduce their level of depression. There was marked difference between study group and control group in total score of SDS,psychiatric-emotional symptom,somatic disorder,psychomotor disability and depressive psychological disorder(p＜0.05,p＜0.01).After intervention,the score of PSDQ of study group increased significantly,compared with the control group whose score of PSDQ remained unchanged.The stepwise regression analysis showed that there was association between PSDQ and depression level.3.Sociological study:A survey of 120 depressive college students through questionnaires before and after moderate exercise and interviews with some depressive college students showed that the depression of five sixths of subjects was caused by at least one of the following reasons:conflict of interpersonal relationship, unpleasant family environment,frustration of individual life,overburden of study, problems of employment,intense competition in study,high expectations from parents,low adaptability to the college life,wrong choice of majors,lack of exercises,emotional confusion,poor health,lack of self-confidence and so on.After physical exercises,depressive college students tended to be in better moods and their self-confidence and personal relationship improveed as well.4.Based on the above researches,this paper analyzed from the aspect of social function of physical exercises the effects of physical exercises on depression of college students by applying the functional theory.The results showed that physical exercises had strong positive intervention of the individual depression,the functions of which were shown as follows:improving clinical indexes of depressive individuals,releasing harmful emotions,improving self-esteem,enhancing self concept,developing harmonious interpersonal relationship,improving the ability of social adaptation,strengthening the sense of social support,changing cognitive model.By using the intervention model in the experiment and applying the functional theory to explain the social mechanism and social function,it is suggested that physical exercises are effective,feasible and applicable interventions in the college students with depressive mood.But there are also some limitations.This comprehensive study provides theoretical support and guidance for government, educational departments,schools and community members with respect of formulating appropriate national fitness campaign,promoting the implementation of the "Regulations on the Work of School Sports" and carrying out the mental health education among college students and developing their good sports habits.