Abstract
Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the sporting and exercise activities of millions of youth. Running is an activity that could be maintained while social distancing restrictions were implemented during the pandemic. However, a recent study has indicated that youth runners reported lower running distance, frequency, and intensity during COVID-19. The reason for this reduction and the impact on overall well-being is unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if the social distancing restrictions during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic influenced running motives, socialization, wellness and mental health in youth long-distance runners.Methods: A customized, open online questionnaire was provided to runners 9–19 years of age who participated in long-distance running activities including team/club cross-country, track and field (distances ≥800 m), road races, or recreational running. Participants responded to questions about demographics, motive for running, and wellness (sleep quality, anxiety, running enjoyment, food consumption quality) 6-months before as well as during social distancing restrictions due to COVID-19. Wilcoxon signed rank tests compared differences for ratio data and Chi-square tests were used to compare proportions before and during COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. Statistical significance was set at p ≤ 0.05.Results: A total of 287 youth long-distance runners (male = 124, female = 162, unspecified = 1; age = 15.3 ± 1.7 years; running experience = 5.0 ± 2.3 years) participated. Compared to their pre-COVID-19 responses, youth long-distance runners reported lower overall motivation to run (p < 0.001) and changes to most motive rankings (p < 0.001 to p = 0.71). The proportion of youth running alone increased during COVID-19 (65.8%) compared to pre-COVID-19 (13.8%, p < 0.001). Youth long-distance runners also reported less running enjoyment (p = 0.001), longer sleep duration (p < 0.001), lower sleep quality (p = 0.05), more anxiety (p = 0.043), and lower food quality consumed (p < 0.001) during COVID-19 social distance restrictions.Conclusion: The COVID-19 social distancing restrictions resulted in significant decreases in motivation and enjoyment of running. The removal of competition and team-based interactions likely had a role in these decreases for this population. Continuing team-based activities (e.g., virtual) during social distancing may help with maintaining motivation of youth long-distance runners. Reduced running occurred concurrently with reduced overall well-being of youth long-distance runners during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic on March 11th, 2020 (World Health Organization, 2020)
The health of adolescent athletes who participate in individual sports like cross-country may not have experienced the same negative experiences during COVID-19 as team sports athletes (McGuine et al, 2020)
Running for competition (p < 0.001) and socialization (p < 0.001) were reported as having lower average motive rankings during COVID-19 social distancing restrictions compared to preCOVID-19
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic on March 11th, 2020 (World Health Organization, 2020). During spring 2020 of the COVID-19 pandemic, youth long-distance runners reported a decrease in their running habits, including reduced running distance (decreased 14.0%), total number of runs per week (decreased 14.0%), and number of hard runs per week (decreased 27.0%) (Bazett-Jones et al, 2020). This is in contrast with adult runners that reportedly increased their running behaviors following social distancing restrictions (DeJong et al, 2021; Holmes et al, 2021; Mosqueira-Ourens et al, 2021). While changes in running habits have been described, motives to run may provide a greater depth of understanding why running habits increased or decreased during COVID-19 social distancing
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