Physical Education, Sport and Corona virus pandemic: Understanding consequences of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns on children’s and youth physical literacy
Final Report Abstract
The PESCoV project was created as a secondary analysis of data to examine potential consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular the two lockdown periods, on physical literacy in children and adolescents. Physical literacy refers to an individual’s motivation, confidence, motor performance, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for maintaining physical activities throughout life span. The pandemic disrupted many opportunities for being physically active during daily life, including the cancellation/closure of physical education classes in schools, playgrounds, and sports clubs. Although these measures were aimed at containing the infectious spread of the coronavirus, they may have had numerous negative effects on various aspects of physical literacy aspects and associated factors, such as children’s physical self-concept, mental health or motor performance levels. The PESCoV project took advantage of two German longitudinal cohort studies ("Motorik- Modul" and "Berlin hat Talent") that collected data on these aspects among school children of different ages before and during the pandemic. Using data from these two projects, the PESCoV project conducted four studies as secondary data analyses, each focusing on different parameters related to physical literacy, including 1) physical self-concept, 2) physical activity and mental health, 3) motor performance, and 4) body mass index. Further, socio economic status was considered in aspects 3 and 4. Indeed, adverse changes were found for different aspects of physical literacy after one or both COVID-19 related lockdown periods, although not all aspects examined were affected. Key outcomes of the four studies included: 1) Study I: More physical education, physical activity in sports clubs, and physical activity during leisure times supported a positive physical self-concept during lockdown II 2) Study II: Children showed lower mental health during lockdown I and II, and higher physical activity during lockdowns did provide protective benefits for mental health. 3) Study III: Motor performance levels in children slightly suffered during the pandemic, but results were highly differential. Overall and across tasks, children were – on average – thrown back about 1 year in development of their physical performance capabilities with regard to representative percentile curves. Importantly and the strongest effect was that motor performance were generally lower in children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. 4) Study IV: Body-Mass-Index was increased during the prolonged second locked, while no significant change in BMI was observed only after the first lockdown. This effect was particularly strong in children with lowest socioeconomic backgrounds. In summary, the findings of the PESCoV project point to deleterious effects on various aspects of school children's physical education. These changes require to be closely monitored throughout the next years and effective interventions are needed to mitigate and counteract the long-term negative effects on children's physical literacy development.
Publications
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10 Jahre BERLIN HAT TALENT* (anwendungsorientierte) Ausrichtung – (wissenschaftliche) Methodologie – (praktische) Ergebnisse. Jahrestagung der dvs-Sektion Sportmotorik, Karlsruhe.
Zinner, J., Utesch, T., Lange, D. & Büsch, D.
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Effects of COVID- 19 pandemic on BMI of primary school children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. In 54th Annual meeting of the German Society for Sport Psychology, Muenster, Germany.
Piesch, L., Jetzke, M., Stojan, R., Büsch, D., Zinner, J. & Utesch, T.
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Effects of COVID- 19 pandemic-related physical education and sports club restrictions on children’s motor development with regard to SEB. In 54th Annual meeting of the German Society for Sport Psychology, Muenster, Germany.
Stojan, R., Jetzke, M., Piesch, L., Zinner, J., Büsch, D. & Utesch, T.
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Health-related quality of life in school children and adolescents during corona pandemic based on changes in physical activity. In 25th meeting of the German Society for Sports Science (dvs), Kiel.
Jetzke, M., Stojan, R., Niessner, C., Woll, A. & Utesch, T.
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The relationship between the amount of physical education and physical activity outside school with physical selfconcept in children and adolescents during second pandemic lockdown. In 25th meeting of the German Society for Sports Science (dvs), Kiel, Germany.
Stojan, R., Jetzke, M., Niessner, C., Worth, A. & Utesch, T.
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A natural experiment on the influence of physical education and physical activity outside school on physical self-concept in children and adolescents during the second lockdown related to pandemic Covid-19. Center for Open Science.
Stojan, Robert; Geukes, Katharina; Jetzke, Malte; Niessner, (geb. Alrecht) Claudia; Worth, Annette & Utesch, Till
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Health-related quality of life in school children during COVID-19 pandemic based on changes in physical activity. Center for Open Science.
Utesch, Till; Stojan, Robert; Niessner, (geb. Alrecht) Claudia; Jetzke, Malte; Woll, Alexander & Geukes, Katharina
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Motor performance in children before, during and after COVID-19 pandemic and the role of socioeconomic background: A 10-year cohort study of 68,996 third grade children. Center for Open Science.
Stojan, Robert; Geukes, Katharina; Piesch, Ludwig; Jetzke, Malte; Zinner, Jochen; Büsch, Dirk & Utesch, Till
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Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdowns on Body Mass Index of Primary School Children from Different Socioeconomic Backgrounds. Sports Medicine - Open, 10(1).
Piesch, Ludwig; Stojan, Robert; Zinner, Jochen; Büsch, Dirk; Utesch, Katharina & Utesch, Till
