Eighth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

It is not surprising that lack of leisure, lack of time to self and poor mental health are health issues commonly experienced by working mothers. This paper examines the perceived stress–relieving benefits a group of mothers state they gained from involvement in a 3–month exercise class program. To validate its efficacy, consistency of findings were also examined through the triangulated quantitative method of measuring acute pre– and post–changes (or pre– and post–60 minutes interval for the exercise group and non-exercising control) in the level of state anxiety (i.e. how you feel “right now”), via the Spielberger et al. (1983) State Anxiety Inventory (STAI). All but 2 of the exercising women overwhelmingly agreed that class participation decreased their stress levels, explained by them as being due to the break away from normal stressors, and the classes forming a “release valve” for tensions. These subjective findings compared positively with the mean STAI changes, revealed to be significant at the .05 level of confidence (one tailed t–test). The findings of this study illustrate how mothers engaging in exercise classes may gain mental wellbeing and ease stress levels, with the resulting sense of freedom making it well worth the effort.