Anxiety and Motivation to Return to Sport During the French COVID-19 Lockdown.

Alexis Ruffault,Jean Fournier,Nicolas Hauw,Marjorie Bernier

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.610882

Abstract

Feeling anxious and presenting self-determined motivations about returning to sport after a break may impair sport performance and increase the risk of sustaining an injury. Hence, the aim of this study is to explore differences in anxiety and motivation to return to sport according to gender, expertise, training status before and during the lockdown, and athletes’ availability (i.e., injury status) at the time of the lockdown. A total of 759 competitive athletes (49% female; mean age: 27 ± 10 years old) completed the cross-sectional study. Participants were invited to state their expertise, training status before and during the lockdown (did they have a training program), and whether they were injured at the start of the lockdown. Additionally, participants filled out psychometric self-report measures of anxiety (TFAI-return) and motivation (SMS-return) to return to sport. Due to non-normal distributions in the TFAI and SMS scores, non-parametric group comparisons were performed to compare participants for each categorical variable: non-parametric correlation tests were also performed to test the associations between continuous variables. Group comparisons showed higher scores of anxiety for females, younger athletes, athletes practicing and competing at the highest level, and athletes without a training program during the lockdown. Moreover, results suggested lower motivation scores (i.e., autonomous and controlled) for older athletes, experts (practicing for more than 10 years), athletes practicing and competing at a lower level, and athletes without a training program during the lockdown. Additionally, participants who were injured at the start of the lockdown reported higher scores of cognitive anxiety to return to sport than non-injured participants. The results of this study suggest that elite athletes may have suffered from external pressures to return to sport during the lockdown. Additionally, participants with a training program during the lockdown seemed to be less anxious and more self-determined to return to sport after the lockdown. Future studies may focus on the impact of cognitive behavioral interventions on anxiety and motivation to return to sport.

Highlights

In France, in reaction to the COVID-19 crisis, the government decided to lock the population down for more than 2 months starting in mid-March 2020
Female participants reported significantly higher scores of cognitive and physiological anxiety, as well as significantly lower scores of perceived control than male participants. These results suggest that older participants had lower cognitive anxiety and extrinsic motivation to return to sport and that female participants were more anxious while perceiving less control over return to sport than male participants
The aim of the present study is to investigate the differences in anxiety and motivation to return to sport across groups of competitive athletes with different levels and training habits during the COVID-19 confinement period in France

Summary

Introduction

In France, in reaction to the COVID-19 crisis, the government decided to lock the population down for more than 2 months starting in mid-March 2020. Quarantine prevents athletes from training in their habitual settings, and most national and international competitions were canceled or postponed until further notice. On the other hand, Lades et al (2020) showed that daily activity (e.g., exercising) during the COVID-19 lockdown increased positive affects and decreased negative affects in 604 individuals from the general population in Ireland. In Italy, Chirico et al (2020) showed that higher anxiety scores during the COVID-19 lockdown negatively influenced intentions to adopt physical activity behaviors. This protective role of exercise as demonstrated in the general population may have applied to athletes who maintained sport practice or physical training during the lockdown

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