Adolescents' enjoyment in face-to-face physical education during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the routines of children and adolescents and on their level of involvement in physical activity (PA). The restrictive rules applied in this period affected the functioning of physical education (PE) classes in Portugal, and strongly limited student participation. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the affective attitude (enjoyment) of adolescents during face-to-face PE lessons during the COVID-19 pandemic (from September 2020), according to sex, education, and PA levels. The study included 1369 students (621 boys and 748 girls), aged 12–18 years, Mage: 14.4;SD: 1.74. A validated online questionnaire was distributed between November and December 2020, and the data were analyzed for positive and negative affective attitude, using MANCOVAs (multivariate analysis of covariance) adjusted for sociodemographic and behavioral variables. The results showed higher negative affective attitudes in younger boys when compared to older boys and to girls in the same education level. Younger less active boys also showed higher negative affective attitudes than less active girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of European Physical Education Review is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Exercise Dependence and Anxiety in Cross-Trainers, Bodybuilders and Gym Exercisers During COVID19.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic an international public health emergency in January 2020, and, soon thereafter, a worldwide adoption of quarantine and physical isolation measures restricted regular practitioners of indoor group physical exercise from many of their usual practices. Some, with exercise dependence (ED), may have experienced exercise withdrawal symptoms that triggered unhealthy anxiety levels. In February 2021, during Portugal's second COVID-19 lockdown, we characterized and compared ED and anxiety levels among different groups of indoor exercise practitioners (cross trainers [CG], bodybuilders [BG] and gym practitioners [GG]). In this cross-sectional study, we recruited 234 adult participants through the internet. To assess participants' ED and anxiety levels, we used Portuguese versions of the ED Scale-21 (EDS-21) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-State; STAI-Trait). ED symptoms were evident in all participant subgroups, and we found no gender differences in ED. Anxiety was higher among women than men in CG and GG groups, and there were significant differences in ED between groups such that BG practitioners showed higher ED than GG and CG practitioners (small effect size). Bodybuilders reported most ED behavior, followed by CG and regular gym exercisers, but on some criteria BG and CG groups had similar ED levels. Our results are in line with prior ED prevalence reports conducted before COVID-19 restrictions among regular GG, but these are the first data to report a higher ED prevalence among BG and CG, relative to GG.