Abstract
The lockdown resulting from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a huge impact on peoples’ health. In sport specifically, athletes have had to deal with frustration of their objectives and changes in their usual training routines. The challenging and disruptive situation could hold implications for their well-being. This study examined the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on changes in athletes’ reported eudaimonic well-being (subjective vitality) and goal motives (autonomous and controlled) over time (i.e., pre-lockdown and during lockdown). The relationship of resilience to changes in subjective vitality was also determined, and changes in athletes’ goal motives were examined as potential mediators. Participants were 127 Spanish university athletes aged between 18 and 34 years (M = 21.14; SD = 2.77). Approximately 4 months before the start of the lockdown in Spain (T1), athletes responded to a questionnaire assessing their resilience, goal motives, and subjective vitality. Around 6 months later into the lockdown period (T2), athletes’ goal motives and subjective vitality were assessed again. Growth modeling using hierarchical linear models revealed a significant decrease of autonomous goal motives and subjective vitality during the lockdown, but athletes did not show change over time in controlled goal motives. Path analysis, adjusting T2 measures for their corresponding T1 measures, showed that resilience significantly predicted changes in athletes’ autonomous goal motives, which then accounted for changes in subjective vitality. The indirect effect was significant. Resilience did not predict changes in athletes’ controlled goal motives. However, changes in controlled goal motives negatively predicted changes in subjective vitality during lockdown. The findings suggest negative impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on athletes’ goal motives and eudaimonic well-being. Results also support the hypothesized mediational role of autonomous goal motives in the relationship between resilience and subjective vitality during the lockdown. As such, findings confirm the relevance of resilience to a key feature of athletes’ eudaimonic well-being and the importance of enhancing their autonomous goal striving.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a health global issue, with millions of confirmed cases in many countries around the world (Satici et al, 2020)
Results from Model 1 (M1) showed that the within-individual variance over time was statistically significant for autonomous goal motives (σ2 = 0.81, p < 0.01), controlled goal motives (σ2 = 1.40, p < 0.01), and subjective vitality (σ2 = 1.80, p < 0.01)
Results from Model 2 (M2) indicated a significant decrease in autonomous goal motives (γ10 = −0.30, p < 0.01) and subjective vitality (γ10 = −1.33, p < 0.01) during the lockdown; there was no significant change over time in controlled goal motives (γ10 = 0.20, p > 0.05)
Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a health global issue, with millions of confirmed cases in many countries around the world (Satici et al, 2020). Their only alternative to train was to train at home, with the limitations that this implies In these circumstances, athletes have encountered issues related to their options to compete and maintain their usual training routines and challenges presented by social isolation and need to distance from partners and teammates (Schinke et al, 2020). Athletes have encountered issues related to their options to compete and maintain their usual training routines and challenges presented by social isolation and need to distance from partners and teammates (Schinke et al, 2020) This has resulted in a decrease in athletes’ training intensity and training volume and other consequences such as a reduction of sleep quality (Mon-López et al, 2020) and changes in their dietary patterns (Roberts et al, 2020). Recent evidence suggests that the challenges brought about by COVID-19 have physical, nutritional, and psychological consequences that may affect their overall health (Pillay et al, 2020)
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