Principal Researcher; Dr. Mirella Di Benedetto

Other Researcher; Lukas Raschilla

We invite you to participate in a research study being conducted by Lukas Raschilla, a post-graduate diploma in psychology student, under the supervision of Dr. Mirella Di Benedetto. This study has three phases spanning a four week period.

Physical activity or exercise is known to have a positive psychological effect, as well as many positive physical effects as a result of changes to the internal systems of the human body. There are many studies that have investigated the positive effects that physical activity has on mood, and indeed many studies suggest that exercise should be used as a psychological treatment for depression. Despite this widespread knowledge, less than 50% of Australian engage in the recommended levels of exercise. Therefore, studies are needed to determine the barriers and facilitators of this rewarding and health beneficial behaviour. The information obtained from this study could be extremely valuable to the fields of clinical health psychology and health promotion, especially in the treatment of mood disorders, such as depression and in promoting physical and mental health.

If you decide to participate, initially you will be asked to complete an online questionnaire about feelings, self-esteem, social support, stage of behaviour change and level of physical activity (or by pen or paper if preferred). These should only take about 30 minutes to complete. After we receive your questionnaire, you will be posted information describing the positive effects of physical activity and strategies for increasing physical activity and a physical activity diary, which you will be required to be complete and post back to the researchers, using the supplied reply-paid self-addressed envelopes, after the four (4) week period.

Participants will be randomly allocated into either the treatment or the intervention group. You will have an equal chance of being in either group. Some participants will also answer some additional questions that will take approximately 5 minutes.

Researchers will send a brief email to all participants to remind you when the diaries and interventions are to be sent back to the researchers. The final phase, at the end of the four week period, will require you to return to the online questionnaire and to complete the same questionnaire as at the start of the study, which should again, only take about 30 minutes to complete.

It is unlikely that you will feel discomfort or distress from participating in this study; however if you do you are encouraged to contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. If you volunteer to participate are free to withdraw consent from the study at any time; however, withdrawal is not possible after submission of the second round of the questionnaire. All information obtained from this research will be kept strictly confidential. The information obtained is only available to the researchers listed below. Any published data that arises from this research will be an aggregate from all of the participants. Identification of any single individual is not possible.

Thank you for considering participating in this research.

Dr Mirella Di Benedetto
Email: m.dibenedetto@ballarat.edu.au
Phone: (03) 5327 9744

Lukas Raschilla
Student Researcher