Individual, Sociodemographic, and Environmental Factors Related to Physical Activity During the Spring 2020 COVID-19 Lockdown.

Claudia Teran-Escobar,Aïna Chalabaev,Anna Clavel,Cyril Forestier,Clément Ginoux,Philippe Sarrazin,Sandrine Isoard-Gautheur

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643109

Abstract

Background: Research has shown important between-individual variations in physical activity (PA) during the COVID-19 lockdown.Objectives: The objectives of this is study are to examine the individual, sociodemographic, and environmental factors related to PA during the spring 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in France and to explore the mediating and moderating role of intention and self-efficacy toward PA in the relationships between sociodemographic/environmental variables and PA.Design: In this cross-sectional study, participants living in France (N = 386) completed an online survey between March 30 and April 10, 2020.Method: Minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous PA during the lockdown; usual physical activity before the lockdown; and psychological (e.g., intention, self-efficacy, and autonomous and controlled motivation), sociodemographic (gender, age, and number of children), and environmental (habitat surface area and type of housing) factors were measured in the survey. Multiple linear regressions were used to investigate the role of these predictors on PA. Intention and self-efficacy were also examined as moderators and mediators of the association between sociodemographic/environmental factors and PA.Results: Usual physical activity before the COVID-19 lockdown, intention toward PA, habitat surface area, and controlled motivation significantly predicted PA during the lockdown. No mediating effects of intention or self-efficacy were found. Intention significantly moderated the association between gender and PA and the association between part-time work and PA.Conclusions: PA during the COVID-19 lockdown was mainly predicted by individual factors and notably usual PA. These results highlight the important role of habits in a highly changing context.

Highlights

COVID-19 represents one of the most important sanitary crises in the last decades
Beyond the effects of COVID-19 on physical health, the disease may have side effects on mental health, due to the strategies most countries have adopted for restraining contagion and other related events
Based on the aforementioned literature, we investigated individual-level factors, including psychological and behavioral factors, as well as sociodemographic and environmental factors

Summary

Introduction

COVID-19 represents one of the most important sanitary crises in the last decades. Beyond the effects of COVID-19 on physical health, the disease may have side effects on mental health, due to the strategies most countries have adopted for restraining contagion (e.g., lockdowns and closure of restaurants, schools, and public places) and other related events (e.g., overload media exposure of COVID-19, Garfin et al, 2020). People were authorized to go out of their home only for necessity reasons (work, medical check-up, purchases of necessities, or physical activity for

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Results