Investigation of the relationship between depression, anxiety, and stress levels with motor imagery and body awareness in individuals with different physical activity levels

Physical activity is considered a component that affects an individual's physiological, psychosocial, motor, and mental development by utilizing all daily movements. Motor imagery is performed by imagining the movement without actually executing it. Body awareness is the individual's knowledge about the characteristics of their own body and other objects in the environment. Depression, anxiety, and stress are seen as influential in physical activity, imagery processes, and the perception of body awareness. To obtain sociodemographic information from the participants, a Sociodemographic Form was used. The study was conducted with 63 volunteers aged between 18–45 years who were students at Haliç University in Istanbul, between November 2024 and May 2025. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) was used to determine physical activity levels, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) was used to measure levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Motor imagery was assessed using the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-3 (MIQ-3), and temporal congruence between actual and imagined movement was evaluated using the Mental Chronometer, Mental Chronometer Performance, and the Timed Up and Go Test (TUG). For body awareness, the Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ) was applied. The SPSS program was used for data analysis, and the significance level was set at p<0.050. In our study, a moderately positive significant relationship was found between DASS-21 and TUG in inactive individuals (r=0.634, p=0.002). Among inactive individuals, a moderately positive significant correlation was found between Mental TUG and depression level (r=0.448, p=0.042). Depression, anxiety, and stress levels were found to be positively and significantly associated with TUG in inactive individuals (p<0.050). In very active individuals, a moderately positive significant relationship was found between DASS-21 and TUG (r=0.451, p=0.040). A moderately negative significant relationship was found between External Visual Imagery (EVI) and anxiety level in very active individuals (r=-0.525, p=0.015). A moderately positive significant relationship was found between TUG and anxiety level (r=0.698, p=0.001), and between TUG and depression level (r=0.458, p=0.037) in very active individuals. Additionally, a moderately negative significant correlation was found between EVI and TUG (r=-0.473, p=0.030) in this group. Between groups, no statistically significant differences were found in DASS-21, depression score, anxiety score, stress score, BAQ, TUG, Mental TUG, Mental Chronometer, Internal Visual Imagery (IVI), EVI, Kinesthetic Imagery (KI), and MIQ-3 (p>0.050). It was observed that as the level of physical activity increased, levels of depression, anxiety, and stress decreased, while BAQ scores increased. In all three groups, depression, anxiety, and stress levels and types of motor imagery were found to be significantly and positively correlated with each other (p<0.050). Developing practices that enhance cognitive-physical awareness such as motor imagery, mental chronometry, and body awareness in collaboration with mental health professionals may contribute to strengthening multidisciplinary approaches.