The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceptions of health, well-being, and college experience in Division III student-athletes

Abstract

Objective: Determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student-athletes. Participants: Participants (n = 238) were Division III student-athletes (18–24yrs) enrolled at a Pennsylvania State University campus during the Fall 2020 semester. Methods: Student-athletes were emailed a link of a 43-question survey which was deployed using Qualtrics®. The survey asked questions about collegiate experience, health, well-being, sport related training, and physical fitness before and during the pandemic. Results: Approximately 94% of student-athletes reported that COVID-19 worsened their college experience. About 52 and 59% of student-athletes believed that COVID-19 had a negative impact on their health and well-being, respectively. Nearly 79% of student-athletes reported that their sport-related training decreased during the pandemic. Over half of participants believed that their physical fitness, endurance, and strength decreased during the pandemic. Conclusion: The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on Division III collegiate student-athletes include a worsened college experience as well as worsened health and well-being.

Keywords:

• Athletics
• college sports
• coronavirus;physical fitness
• training

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the student-athletes who took the time to complete the survey. We would also like to acknowledge the athletic directors at all the Pennsylvania State University Commonwealth Campuses, especially Brent Baird at Penn State Altoona, who supported this project.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Pennsylvania State University.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.