Perceived fitness predicts daily coping better than physical activity

One hundred sixty-six participants (70 males, 96 females) completed a serie s of questionnaires measuring perceived fitness, social desirability, self- esteem, hope, and perceived stress levels and coping abilities. Participant s were then given an activity monitoring device to wear for 1 week. Partici pants recorded daily measures of physical activity, perceived fitness, and perceived stress and coping over 7 days. Results revealed that although per ceived physical fitness was reliably associated with coping actual physical activity was not. These associations remained even after statistically con trolling for gender, social desirability. self-esteem, hope, perceived stre ss, and anxiety. Findings suggest that perceived physical fitness may be a better predictor of daily coping than actual physical activity.