The pandemic COVID-19 burst in the Slovak Republic in March of the 2020 year. Subsequently, the schools were closed on the 10th of March and the everyday life in the country was for a long uncertain time questionable. The curfew slowed down the outdoor activities and has brought sudden changes also in the lives of young active people. This can be a time of uncertainty, and the stress. To do some pleasant activities can act as a stress reliever, but in the pandemic time not all pleasant activities can be realized. We were interested in lack of doing pleasant activities during the pandemic COVID-19 time. We analyzed 195 different activities in life of young mostly sporting people, whether a given activity is popular and pleasant for individuals, the occurrence and frequency of activity implementation before pandemic, during pandemic and feelings the lack of this activity during pandemic. We found out the most pleasant activity for men – non-organized, spontaneous sporting activity and for women – laughing. We recorded statistically significant decline t(14.856) = 48, p < .001 in frequency of doing pleasant activities in comparison before and during COVID-19. The most missing activity was inviting friends’ visits.
Part of the book: Anxiety, Uncertainty, and Resilience During the Pandemic Period
The benefits of sports activities and all kinds of physical activities for well-being and feelings of happiness are important to investigate at various times of life. We studied adolescents to broaden the knowledge of well-being and feelings of happiness in the sample of sports-active and sports-inactive boys and girls. The EPOCH questionnaire was used for the research. We found statistically significant differences in the comparison of the individual qualities of social and emotional well-being: Engagement, perseverance, optimism and connectedness versus quality Happiness between sports-active and sports-inactive girls, sports-active and sports-inactive boys, between the level of sporting activity, where the level of sports does not matter because any sport brings significantly greater feelings of happiness for people who do sports in any way compared to people who do not do sports and do not engage in these activities. It is interesting to note that those who play sports six times a week experienced the greatest degree of happiness, and in the other qualities of well-being with the qualities of engagement, perseverance, optimism and connectedness, they reached statistically significantly better feelings than individuals without sports activities in their lives.
Part of the book: Happiness and Wellness