Is There a More Efficient Exercise for Emotion Regulation of College Students? Three Acute Moderate Exercise Types on Trial After Social Stress Event

Is There a More Efficient Exercise for Emotion Regulation of College Students? Three Acute Moderate Exercise Types on Trial After Social Stress Event | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Is There a More Efficient Exercise for Emotion Regulation of College Students? Three Acute Moderate Exercise Types on Trial After Social Stress Event Rui Luo, Lei Cui, Qiqi Shen, Xue Han, Dongling Wang, Xinnan Li This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6545235/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Objective: Despite findings that acute exercises can regulate emotions, more specific research is needed to distinguish more efficient exercise types. This paper examines the effects and differences of three acute moderate exercise types on emotion regulation after a social stress event. Methods: A total of 72 college students were randomly assigned into 4 groups: single aerobic group (Gsa), paired aerobic goup (Gpa), dynamic stretching goup (Gds), and sitting group (Gs) as a control group. Each participant in groups experienced a Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) for social stress induction and a 15-minute group intervention. The participants’ states on emotions were measured 3 times by the Profile of Mood State (POMS), and their variations were statistically analyzed. Results: 1) The scores of Stress, POMS Tension and Vigour significantly reduced in all 4 groups. 2) The scores of POMS Anger significantly increased in both Gsa and Gpa, and the score of Total Mood Disturbance (TMD) significantly increased only in the Gpa. 3) The scores of POMS Depression, Confusion and TMD significantly reduced in the Gds, specifically in which POMS Depression reduced more than Gsa or Gpa, and TMD reduced more than Gpa. Conclusions: The three acute moderate exercise types exhibited no advantage on alleviating the stress and tension of college students after social stress event, whereas the acute dynamic stretching exercise shew better effects on regulating negative emotions, especially on depression than the aerobic exercise. acute exercise social stress emotion regulation depression Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6545235","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":466534775,"identity":"f49e8efb-1d02-40f0-be66-3214460ddd58","order_by":0,"name":"Rui Luo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Beijing Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rui","middleName":"","lastName":"Luo","suffix":""},{"id":466534778,"identity":"8dd42c05-8271-4bc4-9602-a73f0b6cf143","order_by":1,"name":"Lei Cui","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Beijing Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lei","middleName":"","lastName":"Cui","suffix":""},{"id":466534779,"identity":"32574977-8658-4cf3-84fc-bd95c649ab5a","order_by":2,"name":"Qiqi Shen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Beijing Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Qiqi","middleName":"","lastName":"Shen","suffix":""},{"id":466534782,"identity":"550bf22f-c7dd-4aff-9f79-55307a4fd114","order_by":3,"name":"Xue Han","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Roosevelt University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xue","middleName":"","lastName":"Han","suffix":""},{"id":466534783,"identity":"8a9060d8-b45a-4f27-bb69-220d57ca76da","order_by":4,"name":"Dongling Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Beijing Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Dongling","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":466534790,"identity":"773d8220-da3e-4c7e-9f43-e22a7f354674","order_by":5,"name":"Xinnan Li","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA7klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACg8NgyoKHgRnMsElgkADRbAS1SMC0pCXwENIi2QDRAuMfJqyFn5332IOfOyRkDI6DGefz7KV7DBg+lB1m4J/dgFULGzNfumHvGQkeyWYw43Yxj8wZA8YZ5w4zSNw5gEMLj5kEb5sEDz+EcTuxRyLHgJm37TCDgUQCdocBVUr+BWphgzDOQbT8xaNFspnHTBpmC5BxAKKFEY8Wg8NAlbJtIL+AGcnFPHeOFRzsOZfOI3EDh5bzZ8wk37bZ2EMZdnnss5s3PvhRZi3HPwO7FuzgABDzkKB+FIyCUTAKRgEaAADxDE7Sfl8OEQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Beijing Technology and Business University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xinnan","middleName":"","lastName":"Li","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-28 07:53:15","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6545235/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6545235/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":87400678,"identity":"3e7eaa2d-2144-4c39-ab73-f8bdc6524313","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-23 11:47:09","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":386479,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"5.28RevisedManuscript2nd254281.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6545235/v1_covered_daf6d93f-dd4a-4320-9451-42b585a97825.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Is There a More Efficient Exercise for Emotion Regulation of College Students? Three Acute Moderate Exercise Types on Trial After Social Stress Event","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"acute exercise, social stress, emotion regulation, depression","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6545235/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6545235/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eObjective: Despite findings that acute exercises can regulate emotions, more specific research is needed to distinguish more efficient exercise types. This paper examines the effects and differences of three acute moderate exercise types on emotion regulation after a social stress event.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMethods: A total of 72 college students were randomly assigned into 4 groups: single aerobic group (Gsa), paired aerobic goup (Gpa), dynamic stretching goup (Gds), and sitting group (Gs) as a control group. Each participant in groups experienced a Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) for social stress induction and a 15-minute group intervention. The participants’ states on emotions were measured 3 times by the Profile of Mood State (POMS), and their variations were statistically analyzed.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResults: 1) The scores of Stress, POMS Tension and Vigour significantly reduced in all 4 groups. 2) The scores of POMS Anger significantly increased in both Gsa and Gpa, and the score of Total Mood Disturbance (TMD) significantly increased only in the Gpa. 3) The scores of POMS Depression, Confusion and TMD significantly reduced in the Gds, specifically in which POMS Depression reduced more than Gsa or Gpa, and TMD reduced more than Gpa.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConclusions: The three acute moderate exercise types exhibited no advantage on alleviating the stress and tension of college students after social stress event, whereas the acute dynamic stretching exercise shew better effects on regulating negative emotions, especially on depression than the aerobic exercise.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Is There a More Efficient Exercise for Emotion Regulation of College Students? 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