How Does a Sport Psychological Intervention Help Professional Cyclists to Cope With Their Mental Health During the COVID-19 Lockdown?

Abstract

All around the world in March, due to COVID-19, competitive sport calendars were suddenly canceled, jeopardizing the training programs of athletes. Moreover, in Italy, the government banned all non-essential travel across the entire country from the beginning of March. Consequently, Italian cyclists were banned from leaving their homes and therefore unable to perform their ordinary training activities. The Italian Association of Professional Cyclists (ACCPI) early on during that period noticed that several cyclists were experiencing a worrying decrease in their mental well-being and asked the authors to set up an online Sport Psychology Intervention (SPI) during lockdown to enhance the athletes' mental health. Through a number of unprecedented events and considerations, the aim of the current investigation was to assess the Italian cyclists' mental health during the lockdown and its changes after the SPI. We validated the Italian version of the Sport Mental Health Continuum Short Form (Sport MHC-SF)—presented in Study 1—and then applied it to a sample of Italian professional cyclists—presented in Study 2—prior to and after the SPI. To achieve these objectives, the reliability and construct validity of the Italian version of the Sport MHC-SF were tested in Study 1. RM-MANOVA tests were run to evaluate the effect of SPI on cyclists in Study 2. A total of 185 Italian athletes were involved in the validation of the MHC in Study 1 and 38 professional cyclists in Study 2. Results from Study 1 suggested a three-factor higher order model of Sport MHC-SF [Model fit: χ2(df) = 471.252 (252), p < 0.000; CFI = 0.951; RMSEA = 0.049; RMR= 0.048]. MCFA showed that the default model kept invariance among groups of athletes (i.e., female, male, individual, and team sports). Results from Study 2 highlighted that professional cyclists who followed the SPI were able to cope better with psychological stressors, showing improved well-being compared to the athletes that did not. No significant differences were found for emotional and social well-being. The present multi-study paper contributes to the theoretical field with a validated measure of Sport MHC-SF translated in the Italian language and culture. It also provides practical implications related to cases of reduced mental health due to injury, illness, or similar situations of home confinement in the future.

Internal Locus of Control and Sense of Coherence Decrease During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey of Students and Professionals in Social Work

“…Fostering of meaning-making processes (“normalization”) in light of the pandemic (i.e., recognition that stress reactions are normal given the current situation) represents a promising approach for psychological intervention ( Castiglioni and Gaj, 2020 ): Promoting the understanding of stressful experiences can be considered as an important coping strategy and can substantially contribute to improving sense of coherence. Complementary pandemic-compatible strategies to improve mental health are already available, such as sports psychology interventions ( Bertollo et al, 2021 ), specific pandemic-related training and preparation ( Reverté-Villarroya et al, 2021 ), and the use of interventions such as mindfulness and a reduction of news consumption ( Aughterson et al, 2021 ).…”

Burnout and Mental Interventions among Youth Athletes：A Meta-Analysis of the Studies

“…Furthermore, studies revealed that athletes who received such professional psychological help coped better with psychological stressors, showing improved well-being than those who did not participate in such training. Online interventions give new opportunities and allow to help athletes wherever they are [35].…”

Emotional states of athletes in the first lockdown due to Covid-19: A comparison of Polish and Spanish samples

“…Thus, we see in the current study that Polish athletes, especially women, have a stronger response to the lockdown situation, which should receive particular interest. Numerous studies show that athletes all around the world experienced a decrease in mental wellbeing, an increased level of stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms and feelings of anger, confusion during the first lockdown, and women and individual sports representatives seem to have the highest costs of the problematic situation of pandemic [1,9,[19][20][21].…”

“…Many sports associations have introduced specially prepared online psychological interventions for athletes. Furthermore, studies revealed that athletes who received such professional mental training coped better with psychological stressors, showing improved well-being than the athletes who did not participate in such training [19]. Therefore, monitoring the mental conditions of sports professionals and designing psychological interventions that would match athletes' personal needs seems crucial for similar, tremendously complex, and socially isolating situations.…”