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

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.

Understanding physical activity declines during COVID-19: The affective repercussions of disruption to exercise routines

“…These findings support our reasoning that intrinsic motivation may not support PA engagement in situations when exercise does not elicit positive affective experiences and might explain why recent studies have not found intrinsic motivation to be protective against physical activity declines during COVID-19 (see Petersen et al, 2021 ; Rhodes et al, 2020 ; Teran-Escobar et al, 2021 ; Volz et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, findings revealed that there may even be affective repercussions in these situations, especially for individuals who typically exercise for inherent rewards (e.g., enjoyment, interest).…”

“…These studies consistently found that higher levels of self-efficacy (i.e., one’s confidence in one’s ability to successfully perform a behavior) and identified regulation (i.e., finding personal utility or importance in PA) were protective of PA engagement during this period of disruption ( Petersen et al, 2021 ; Rhodes et al, 2020 ; Volz et al, 2021 ). However, these studies did not find an association between intrinsic motivation–doing an activity for its inherent rewards–or related constructs (e.g., affective judgments) and PA engagement ( Petersen et al, 2021 ; Rhodes et al, 2020 ; Teran-Escobar et al, 2021 ; Volz et al, 2021 ). This finding was unexpected given the wealth of support for intrinsic motivation as a sustainable form of motivation for long-term engagement in PA (see Ng et al, 2012 and Teixeira et al, 2012 for meta- and systematic analyses) and warrants further examination of factors that might impact the association between intrinsic motivation and PA.…”

Stay home and stay active? The impact of stay-at-home restrictions on physical activity routines in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The result of the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically disrupted routines in adults and children around the globe ranging from commuting behaviours to recreational habits (Maltagliati et al, 2020). This has had a subsequent impact on people's physical activity (PA) routines, due to government level restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the virus (Cheval et al, 2020;Di Corrado et al, 2020, p. 7,8;Dunton et al, 2020;Teran-Escobar et al, 2021).…”

"I am fatigued of being stigmatized": On the need to investigate stigma-related barriers to physical activity

“…However, this is not the case, as contextual factors explain additional variance in behavior once individual cognitions are controlled. For example, intention and self-efficacy only partially mediate the relationships between contextual variables (sociodemographic, health-related, interpersonal and environmental) and physical activity (e.g., Teran-Escobar et al, 2021;Sniehotta et al, 2013). Therefore, the sufficiency hypothesis is not sufficient to explain physical activity.…”