Physical activities and enjoyment during the lockdown: Effect of home-based supervised training among children and adolescents

Abstract

Enjoyment during physical and sport activities is an essential and well recognized component that has been also related to motor ability in children. During the period of home confinement due to Covid-19 lockdown, the Italian version of the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES-It) was used to evaluate the level of enjoyment in physical and sports activities. The beginning stem of the questionnaire was modified by asking subjects “During the lockdown, when I am physically active…”. Data were collected on a sample of 140 among children and adolescents (60 aged 6-11 and 80 aged 12-15, 66% males and 34% females). About 90% of subjects followed online school classes and 83% also received indications from their Sports Associations about physical home-exercises and other forms of guided distance learning. Results from PACES showed that subjects liked the home physical activities with a mean value of 65.2 ± 11.8 with higher values from those who received online support from their regular instructors; moreover, higher values from PACES were obtained by middle school children respect to primary school children and high school adolescents. Despite the mandatory confinement, a positive feedback regarding the enjoyment was reported by children and adolescents for the home distance modality.