Coping Strategies and Perceiving Stress among Athletes during Different Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic-Data from Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.
Ryszard Makarowski, Radu Predoiu, Andrzej Piotrowski, Karol Görner, Alexandra Predoiu, Rafael Oliveira, Raluca Anca Pelin, Alina Daniela Moanță, Ole Boe, Samir Rawat, Gayatri Ahuja
Author Information
Ryszard Makarowski: Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Academy of Applied Medical and Social Sciences in Elbląg, 82-300 Elblag, Poland.
Radu Predoiu: Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, National University of Physical Education and Sports, 060057 Bucharest, Romania. ORCID
Andrzej Piotrowski: Department of Personality Psychology and Forensic Psychology, University of Gdańsk, 80-309 Gdańsk, Poland. ORCID
Karol Görner: Faculty of Sports, University of Presov, 08001 Presov, Slovakia.
Alexandra Predoiu: Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, National University of Physical Education and Sports, 060057 Bucharest, Romania. ORCID
Rafael Oliveira: Sports Science School of Rio Maior-Polytechnic Institute of Santarém, 2040-413 Rio Maior, Portugal. ORCID
Raluca Anca Pelin: Department of Physical Education and Sports-Kinetotherapy, Faculty of Medical Engineering, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania. ORCID
Alina Daniela Moanță: Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, National University of Physical Education and Sports, 060057 Bucharest, Romania.
Ole Boe: Department of Business, Strategy and Political Sciences, University of South-Eastern Norway, 3045 Drammen, Norway. ORCID
Samir Rawat: Military MIND Academy, Pune 411060, India.
Gayatri Ahuja: Department of Education, Ali Yavar Jung National Institute of Speech and Hearing Disabilities, Mumbai 400050, India.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has affected numerous aspects of human functioning. Social contacts, work, education, travel, and sports have drastically changed during the lockdown periods. The pandemic restrictions have severely limited professional athletes’ ability to train and participate in competitions. For many who rely on sports as their main source of income, this represents a source of intense stress. To assess the dynamics of perceived stress as well as coping strategies during different waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, we carried out a longitudinal study using the Perception of Stress Questionnaire and the Brief COPE on a sample of 2020 professional athletes in Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. The results revealed that in all three countries, the highest intrapsychic stress levels were reported during the fourth wave (all, p < 0.01) and the highest external stress levels were reported before the pandemic (p < 0.05). To analyze the data, analyses of variance were carried out using Tukey’s post hoc test and η2 for effect size. Further, emotional tension was the highest among Polish and Slovak athletes in the fourth wave, while the highest among Romanian athletes was in the pre-pandemic period. The coping strategies used by the athletes in the fourth wave were more dysfunctional than during the first wave (independent t test and Cohen’s d were used). The dynamics of the coping strategies—emotion focused and problem focused—were also discussed among Polish, Romanian, and Slovak athletes. Coaches and sports psychologists can modify the athletes’ perceived stress while simultaneously promoting effective coping strategies.
