title: Bidirectional prospective associations between physical activity and depressive symptoms. The TRAILS Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Low levels of physical activity (PA) have been shown to be associated with depression in adults. The few studies that focused on adolescents yielded mixed and inconsistent results. Efforts to examine the direction of this relationship have been inconclusive up to now. The aims of this study were therefore to investigate (1) the direction of the inverse association between PA and depressive symptoms over time, and (2) whether these associations are specific to particular clusters of depressive symptoms in adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Depressive symptoms and PA were assessed in a population sample of adolescents (N = 2,230) who were measured at three waves between age 10 and age 17. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Affective Problems scale of the Youth Self-Report and Child Behavior Checklist, whereas PA was operationalized as the amount of time spent on physical exercise. Structural equation modeling was used to examine bidirectional effects of PA and depressive symptoms over time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found significant cross-lagged paths from prior PA to later depression as well as from prior depression to later PA (beta values = -.039 to -.047). After subdividing depression into affective and somatic symptoms, the affective symptoms were reciprocally related to PA, whereas the paths between somatic symptoms and PA did not reach statistical significance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An inverse bidirectional association between PA and general depressive symptoms was observed. This association was restricted to affective symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Psychiatric Epidemiology and Groningen Graduate School, Medical Sciences, Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. n.stavrakakis@med.umcg.nl
authors.forename: Nikolaos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stavrakakis
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de Jonge
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ormel
authors.forename: Albertine J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Oldehinkel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011446:Prospective Studies