Effect of regular exercise on methods of problem centered stress coping mechanism

Introduction&rlm;: &rlm;College students continuously confront stresses and psycho environmental pressures &lrm;such as educational, family, social and economic problems. It is obvious that outcome of stress &lrm;affects their educational functioning and mental health. And for this reason they use methods to &lrm;confront stress in order to decrease its effect. An influential factor modifying stress and stress &lrm;coping mechanism is regular physical activity. &lrm; Objective: The goal of this study was to determine the effect of regular exercise activity on &lrm;methods of problem centered coping mechanism in nursing students of Guilan University of &lrm;Medical Sciences.&lrm; &nbsp;&lrm; Methods: This is an interventional study of randomized controlled trial. In this study, &lrm;&rlm;76&rlm;&lrm; students &lrm;eligible for the study were chosen and assigned by systematic random sampling into case and &lrm;control groups. The case group performed intervention program (&lrm;&rlm;6&rlm;&lrm;-week exercise) but control group &lrm;received no intervention. Methods of coping were examined in both groups before and after &lrm;intervention using WCQ instrument. Data were analyzed using SPSS version &lrm;&rlm;16&rlm;&lrm; and descriptive &lrm;statistics (Frequency, Mean and Standard deviation) and analytical statistics (Paired and &lrm;Independent T) with significant level of P<&lrm;&rlm;0.05&rlm;&lrm;.&lrm; &nbsp;Results: Findings showed no significant difference between the two groups regarding age, marital &lrm;status, place of living, mothers&rsquo; education level, fathers&rsquo; and mothers&rsquo; job, family level of income, &lrm;and number of family members, but there was a significant difference between year of entrance and &lrm;level of education. In addition findings showed a significant difference between problem-centered &lrm;coping method before and after intervention in experiment group.&lrm; Conclusion: Regular exercises affects problem-centered stress coping mechanism and decrease &lrm;negative outcomes of stress and have an important role on maintenance of students' mental health.&lrm;