Session 19 Lightning talk: The effect of exercise on stress reactivity to public speaking assessments in university students

Abstract

Session overview:

The prevalence of mental health issues in university students is increasing rapidly (450% increase, in recent years). One aspect of education that students find particularly stressful is public speaking assessments such as oral presentations. These assessments are a crucial component of a higher education syllabus for evaluating students’ ability to communicate ideas effectively whilst also providing transferrable skills for the workplace. However, 80% of students from two UK Universities reported that oral presentations were a source of social anxiety impacting on learning and well-being. Therefore, it is important to explore potential stress buffers to help students cope with these assessments. A potential tool for alleviating stress is exercise. The health benefits of regular exercise have been studied extensively with evidence supporting mood-boosting and stress-reducing properties. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of regular exercise in stress reactivity during oral presentation assessments. Salivary cortisol was measured immediately before, immediately after, 20 minutes after, and at 5:00 pm on the evening of the oral presentation. Baseline cortisol samples were also taken a week prior to the assessments, 30 minutes after waking and at 5:00 pm for comparison. Our data suggest a significant attenuation of cortisol responses immediately before an oral presentation assessment in students with high pre-existing physical activity levels compared to those with low/moderate physical activity levels. With this study, we aim to highlight evidence that campaigning for regular exercise amongst university students is essential for improving student well-being and student outcomes.

Key learning points from this session:

This study clearly shows that regular exercise has stress buffering effects during assessments involving oral presentation. This information can be interesting to all colleagues across the university as oral presentations are a common type of assessment in most educational settings.

The effect of exercise on stress reactivity to public speaking assessments in university students PowerPoint. Only LJMU staff and students have access to this resource.