Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Frontiers in Sports and Active Living

Publisher

Frontiers Media S. A.

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

RAS ID

32719

Comments

Fox-Harding, C., Harris, S. A., Rogers, S. L., Vial, S., Beranek, P., Turner, M., & Cruickshank, T. (2021). A survey to evaluate the association of COVID-19 restrictions on perceived mood and coping in Australian community level athletes. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 3, article 624267. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.624267

Abstract

Australian community level athletes faced unprecedented changes to their training andcompetition options as the global COVID-19 pandemic took a stronghold. This disruptionwas predicted to have a negative impact on emotional well-being as communitiesbraced through periods of social isolation and physical distancing requirements. Thisstudy provides an Australian perspective on the emotional well-being of communitylevel athletes and the extent to which they coped during the COVID-19 pandemic.Emotional well-being and coping were measured using the Brief Emotional ExperienceScale and the 28-item Brief Cope Scale. Both instruments were administered alongwith other questions pertaining to participant demographics and training status via anonline survey between April and June 2020. The survey was disseminated to communityathletes through word-of-mouth and social media platforms. No significant differencesin emotional well-being were observed between athlete groups as a result of COVID-19and its associated restrictions. Coping scores also appeared to be preserved in Australiancommunity athletes, which contrasts the impact expected asa result of the COVID-19pandemic. While tentative, the observed preservation in coping may have bufferedpotential declines in emotional well-being, which has beendocumented in professionaland semi-professional athletes and the general population. These unexpected findingsand tentative suppositions warrant further investigationand highlight the importance ofconducting a country- or region-specific approach to examining the impact of COVID-19on community athletes, as responses to COVID-19 are undoubtedly not consistentthroughout the world.

DOI

10.3389/fspor.2021.624267

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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