Aim & Scope
Mental Health and Physical Activity is an international forum for scholarly reports on any aspect of relevance to advancing our understanding of the relationship between mental health and physical activity. Manuscripts will be considered for publication which deal with high quality research, comprehensive research reviews, and critical reflection of applied or research issues. The journal is open to the use of diverse methodological approaches. Reports of practice will need to demonstrate academic rigour, preferably through analysis of programme effectiveness, and go beyond mere description. The aims of Mental Health and Physical Activity are: (1) To foster the inter-disciplinary development and understanding of the mental health and physical activity field; (2) To develop research designs and methods to advance our understanding; (3) To promote the publication of high quality research on the effects of physical activity (interventions and a single session) on a wide range of dimensions of mental health and psychological well-being (e.g., depression, anxiety and stress responses, mood, cognitive functioning and neurological disorders, such as dementia, self-esteem and related constructs, psychological aspects of quality of life among people with physical and mental illness, sleep, addictive disorders, eating disorders), from both efficacy and effectiveness trials; (4) To promote high quality research on the biophysical and psychosocial mechanisms involved to help our understanding of the link between physical activity and mental health, and guide intervention development; (5) To provide an evidence-based source for professionals working in the field of mental health and a forum to consider service delivery issues. [1]