Adolescents’ Long-Term Experiences of Manageability, Comprehensibility, and Meaningfulness of a Group-Based Exercise Intervention for DepressionShow others and affiliations
2022 (English)In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, ISSN 1661-7827, E-ISSN 1660-4601, Vol. 19, no 5, article id 2894Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Physical exercise is a potentially effective treatment for adolescents with mild to moderate depression. However, there is a lack of long-term follow-ups to reveal adolescents’ experiences of exercise as a treatment for depression. The salutogenic concept of sense of coherence (SOC), comprising the domains manageability, comprehensibility, and meaningfulness is important to understand behaviour change. This study aimed to describe adolescents’ long-term experiences of manageability, comprehensibility, and meaningfulness of a group-based exercise intervention for depression. Fourteen adolescents with persistent depression were recruited from a psychiatric outpatient clinic and interviewed one year after participating in a 14-week moderate to vigorous exercise intervention for depression. An abductive qualitative content analysis was conducted, based on the three SOC domains manageability, comprehensibility, and meaningfulness. The results revealed that participation in the intervention was made manageable by a supportive environment, including: the intervention design, togetherness with peer group, and encouragement from adults. The comprehensibility of the intervention emerged through the insights regarding health benefits of exercise and the aim of the intervention. Meaningfulness was achieved through improved health behaviour, well-being and self-esteem, along with strengthened belief in the future and increased commitment to everyday life. The group-based exercise intervention was experienced as manageable, comprehensible, and meaningful. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Basel: MDPI, 2022. Vol. 19, no 5, article id 2894
Keywords [en]
Adolescents, Comprehensibility, Depression, Exercise intervention, Manageability, Meaningfulness, Qualitative content analysis, Treatment
National Category
Health Sciences
Research subject
Health Innovation, IDC
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-46488DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19052894ISI: 000768042200001PubMedID: 35270586Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85125405791OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hh-46488DiVA, id: diva2:1645748
2022-03-182022-03-182023-01-02Bibliographically approved