ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic altered daily life in the United States and disrupted how people engage in routine health behaviors, such as physical activity (PA). This study investigates factors that may have helped people sustain recommended levels of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) during this time. Using a cross-sectional design, we recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk in April/May 2020 a sample of individuals who reported that they had met recommended PA guidelines (≥ 150 weekly MVPA minutes; N = 397) prior to structural changes brought about by COVID-19. We assessed via self-report whether these individuals were meeting recommended levels of MVPA during the COVID-19 pandemic, their intrinsic motivation and identified regulation for exercise, exercise self-efficacy, perceived disruption to their exercise routine, and access to resources for PA. Higher identified regulation, self-efficacy, access to PA resources, and lower perceived disruption were associated with meeting PA guidelines during COVID-19. These findings provide insight into factors that may be important for continued engagement in MVPA when one experiences major disruptions to their exercise routine.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08964289.2021.1929811 .
ABSTRACT
Recent research has examined psychological factors that forestalled declines in physical activity (PA) during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Surprisingly, there has been limited evidence of an association between intrinsic motivation (IM) and PA. We reasoned that IM may have not predicted PA because COVID-19 restrictions limited opportunities to engage in exercise in ways that produced positive affective experiences (i.e., inherent rewards). Using data from a cross-sectional survey (N = 373 participants), we tested a moderated mediation model that predicted perceived changes to affective experiences during exercise would mediate the association between disruption to one's exercise routine and self-reported declines in PA, and that effects would be moderated by IM. Evidence of moderated mediation was found, suggesting that disruptions to exercise routines were associated with fewer positive affective experiences during exercise that predicted declines in PA engagement, especially for people who typically exercised for intrinsic reasons.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: This study examines the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on exercise routines and engagement in moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). DESIGN: Individuals (N = 397) who reported meeting recommended guidelines for MVPA prior to COVID-19 completed an online questionnaire during the United States' COVID-19 lockdowns in April/May 2020. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants reported their MVPA currently and before COVID-19, and answered questions about five contextual cues (e.g. time of day, interaction partners, type of workout, surrounding events, location of exercise) that characterized their exercise routines currently and before COVID-19. RESULTS: Contextual cues were perceived as highly disrupted and less consistent during COVID-19 (vs. before) and these changes were associated with greater declines in MVPA. For each cue, distinct effects predicting MVPA declines also emerged for perceived disruption due to COVID-19 restrictions, perceived importance of cue in getting one to exercise, and cue consistency over time. CONCLUSION: Building on prior research, COVID-19 restrictions affected the context in which people exercised, and changes in these contextual cues were related to declines in MVPA. Re-establishing consistency in certain cues (e.g. time of day) after a disruption may help to forestall declines in MVPA compared to others (e.g. type of workout).
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has extensively changed the state of psychological science from what research questions psychologists can ask to which methodologies psychologists can use to investigate them. In this article, we offer a perspective on how to optimize new research in the pandemic's wake. Because this pandemic is inherently a social phenomenon-an event that hinges on human-to-human contact-we focus on socially relevant subfields of psychology. We highlight specific psychological phenomena that have likely shifted as a result of the pandemic and discuss theoretical, methodological, and practical considerations of conducting research on these phenomena. After this discussion, we evaluate metascientific issues that have been amplified by the pandemic. We aim to demonstrate how theoretically grounded views on the COVID-19 pandemic can help make psychological science stronger-not weaker-in its wake.