Promoting Physical Activity during School Closures Imposed by the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Physical Education Teachers’ Behaviors in France, Italy and Turkey

Erica Gobbi, Silvio Maltagliati, Philippe Sarrazin, Selenia di Fronso, Alessandra Colangelo, Boris Cheval, Géraldine Escriva-Boulley, Damien Tessier, Giyasettin Demirhan, Gokce Erturan, Yilmaz Yüksel, Athanasios Papaioannou, Maurizio Bertollo and Attilio Carraro
Additional contact information
Erica Gobbi: Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, 61029 Urbino, Italy
Silvio Maltagliati: School of Human Movement & Sport Sciences, Université Grenoble Alpes, SENS, F-38000 Grenoble, France
Philippe Sarrazin: School of Human Movement & Sport Sciences, Université Grenoble Alpes, SENS, F-38000 Grenoble, France
Selenia di Fronso: Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti and Pescara, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Alessandra Colangelo: Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology, University of Padova, 35137 Padova, Italy
Boris Cheval: Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Laboratory for the Study of Emotion Elicitation and Expression (E3Lab), Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
Géraldine Escriva-Boulley: School of Human Movement & Sport Sciences, Université Grenoble Alpes, SENS, F-38000 Grenoble, France
Damien Tessier: School of Human Movement & Sport Sciences, Université Grenoble Alpes, SENS, F-38000 Grenoble, France
Giyasettin Demirhan: Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Hacettepe University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey
Gokce Erturan: Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Pamukkale University, 20020 Denizli, Turkey
Yilmaz Yüksel: Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Hacettepe University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey
Athanasios Papaioannou: Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Thessaly, 42100 Trikala, Greece
Maurizio Bertollo: Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti and Pescara, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Attilio Carraro: Faculty of Education, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, 39042 Brixen, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 24, 1-15

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reduced physical activity (PA) behaviors of many people. Physical education (PE) is considered one of the privileged instruments to promote youths’ PA. We aimed to investigate the effects of lockdown on PE teachers’ behaviors promoting their students’ out-of-school PA and differences between three European countries. A sample of 1146 PE teachers (59.5% females) from France, Italy, and Turkey answered an online questionnaire about guiding students to engage in out-of-school PA, helping them to set PA goals, encouraging in self-monitoring PA, the pedagogical formats of these behaviors and feedback asked to students. RM-MANCOVAs were performed with a two-time (before and during the lockdown), three country (France, Italy, Turkey), two gender factorial design, using teaching years and perceived health as covariates. A significant multivariate main effect time × country × gender ( p < 0.001) was reported for the behaviors promoting students’ PA, with French and Italian teachers increasing some behaviors, while Turkish teachers showing opposite trends. Significant multivariate main effects time × country were found for formats supporting the behaviors ( p < 0.001) and for asked feedback formats ( p < 0.001). The massive contextual change imposed by lockdown caused different reactions in teachers from the three countries. Findings are informative for PA promotion and PE teachers’ education.

Keywords: COVID-19; lockdown; online teaching; physical education; physical activity; teachers; secondary school (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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