Determining the Anxiety of Athletes During Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study is to determine the state-trait anxiety of athletes during Covid-19 pandemic. Method: The study was performed by using survey method. The research population is composed of a total of 224 adult athletes ((X) over bar (age)=26.24 +/- 8.50) as 139 males ((X) over bar (age)=27.71 +/- 9.81) and 103 females ((X) over bar (age)=24.25 +/- 5.72) engaged in individual and team sports in different branches in Marmara region (Istanbul, Kocaeli and Sakarya). The athletes have 13.73 +/- 8.65 years of experience in sports..State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. developed by Spielberger et al. (1970) and adapted into Turkish by Oner and Le Compte (1983) and.Personal Information Questionnaire. prepared by the researchers were used as the data collection tool. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, independent groups T-test, one-way variance (ANOVA) analysis and Pearson correlation analysis. Findings: State anxiety scores of athletes significantly differ by such conditions as being a national athlete, fear of Covid infection, damaged performance in Covid infection, doing exercise at home during Covid infection and weight change during Covid (p<.05) while they do not significantly differ by gender and monthly income perception (p>.05). Trait anxiety scores of athletes significantly differ by being a national athlete, fear of Covid infection, damaged performance in Covid infection, doing exercise at home during Covid infection, monthly income perception and weight change during Covid (p<.05) while they do not significantly differ by gender (p>.05). Moreover, significant negative relationship was established between state anxiety scores of athletes and the time of exercise during pandemic (p<.05) while no significant relation was found regarding age, year of sports and duration of sleep during pandemic (p>.05). Negative significant relationships were found between trait anxiety scores and age, year of sports, and time and day of exercise; positive significant relationships were found between trait anxiety and duration of sleep in pandemic period (p<.05). Conclusion: It has been concluded that state anxiety scores of athletes are over average, their trait anxiety scores are below average and state-trait anxiety scores differ by some demographic variables while they are in relation with some others.