Abstract
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health have not been fully inspected among the young adults’ population. The objectives of the present study were: (1) to examine differences in emotional reactivity and emotion regulation between, both gender and sports engagement level during the first 2 weeks of the lockdown; and (2) to examine the possible impact of emotion regulation on emotional reactivity, and possible significant roles of gender and sports engagement level as moderators. This cross-sectional study included 315 Serbian young adults (aged 18–26 years old) during COVID-19 lockdown. Respondents answered socio-demographic questions and the Serbian version of the Multidimensional Emotion Questionnaire (MEQ). The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated good fit for both positive and negative reactivity scales (SRMR = 0.037; CFI = 0.984, RMSEA = 0.046, and SRMR = 0.055; CFI = 0.964, RMSEA = 0.064, respectively). Gender differences were found in both positive (p = 0.039; d = 0.28) and negative emotional reactivity scales (p < 0.001; d = 0.60), with females reported lower and higher values, respectively. Professional athletes presented higher scores in positive reactivity scale in comparison to non-athletes (p < 0.001; d = 0.78) and recreational athletes (p = 0.034; d = 0.34) during 2 weeks of COVID-19 lockdown. Conversely, professional athletes scored lower in negative emotional reactivity scale in comparison to non-athletes (p < 0.001; d = 0.85) and recreational athletes (p = 0.006; d = 0.42). Both gender and sports engagement level differences were found for negative, but not for positive emotion regulation scale. Furthermore, results showed that engagement in sports level plays a significant role as moderator in relationship between negative regulation and negative reactivity, where professional athletes presented significant interaction effect and predicted lower negative reactivity scores compared to non-athletes and recreational athletes. However, gender does not moderate the influence of emotion regulation on emotional reactivity either positive or negative. Engagement in sports as a lifestyle may contribute to better emotional harmony especially in the crisis situation as COVID-19 lockdown.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic as a global health crisis has affected general health and everyday life (Restubog et al, 2020)
There were no previous studies to confirm if Multidimensional Emotion Questionnaire (MEQ) could differentiate emotion regulation and emotional reactivity based on engagement in sports
Based on findings in the present study we were able to support that female individuals tend to present higher scores in both negative emotion regulation and emotional reactivity subscales
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic as a global health crisis has affected general health and everyday life (Restubog et al, 2020). It has been reported that professional athletes had better mental health status than nonathletes (Senısık et al, 2021) and showed lower negative emotional state values than expected average (Leguizamo et al, 2021) during COVID-19 lockdown It should be noted, there were no previous studies to confirm if MEQ could differentiate emotion regulation and emotional reactivity based on engagement in sports (non-athletes, recreational athletes, and professional athletes). There were no previous studies to confirm if MEQ could differentiate emotion regulation and emotional reactivity based on engagement in sports (non-athletes, recreational athletes, and professional athletes) On this account, there is a gap in the literature in which different approaches could allow potential contribution to further explain emotion regulation and emotional reactivity and their interaction. The objectives of the present study were: (1) to examine differences in emotional reactivity and emotion regulation between both gender and engagement in sports during the first 2 weeks of the lockdown; and (2) to examine the possible interaction between emotion regulation on emotional reactivity, and whether there is the significant role of both gender and engagement in sports as moderators
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