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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1490862
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Diverse Personal and Social Challenges Impact on Athletes' Careers and Competition Preparation: Psychological Side Effects View all articles

DID SOCIAL ISOLATION AFFECT ANXIETY AND SLEEP QUALITY OF ELITE SOCCER PLAYERS DURING THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN? COMPARISONS TO TRAINING BEFORE DISTANCING IN THE PANDEMIC AND OUTLOOK FOR MENTAL HEALTH Authors

Provisionally accepted
WHYLLERTON MAYRON CRUZ WHYLLERTON MAYRON CRUZ 1Danilo Reis Coimbra Danilo Reis Coimbra 2Guilherme Torres Vilarino Guilherme Torres Vilarino 1Amândio Cupido Santos Amândio Cupido Santos 3Vernon Furtado da Silva Vernon Furtado da Silva 4Stefania Mancone Stefania Mancone 5Lavinia Falese Lavinia Falese 5Pierluigi Diotaiuti Pierluigi Diotaiuti 5Alexandro Andrade Alexandro Andrade 1*
  • 1 Santa Catarina State University, Florianopolis, Brazil
  • 2 Juiz de Fora Federal University, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil
  • 3 University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
  • 4 Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 5 University of Cassino, Cassino, Lazio, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    To analyze the anxiety levels and sleep quality of elite soccer athletes in training pre-pandemic and during the lockdown caused by COVID-19. Method: This is an exploratory study with a longitudinal design carried out with elite soccer athletes from two Brazilian soccer clubs. Data collection took place in person pre-pandemic (training) and online (during lockdown) between February and May 2020. The instruments used to assess sleep, daytime sleepiness, and anxiety were the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Daytime Sleepiness Scale -(ESS-BR), and Competitive Anxiety Scale (SCAT). For data analysis, descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, maximum and minimum) and non-parametric inferential statistics were used, establishing a significance of p<0.05. Results: In total, 76 male soccer athletes participated in the study. A significant increase was observed in anxiety levels in confinement compared to prepandemic training (p=0.017; g=0.83), and sleepiness significantly reduced in training compared to baseline levels (p=0.007 g=0.48). The athletes demonstrated good sleep quality and the pandemic did not significantly alter daytime sleepiness compared to training and baseline. Conclusion: From the results it can be concluded that elite soccer athletes presented alterations in anxiety levels compared to training during confinement, however, no effects of confinement were observed on sleep quality and sleepiness. New studies are needed to analyze the long-term consequences of the pandemic and the relationships between anxiety and sleep in training and competition in athletes.

    Keywords: Soccer, high performance, detraining, Psychological aspects, Mental Health, COVID-19

    Received: 03 Sep 2024; Accepted: 12 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 CRUZ, Coimbra, Vilarino, Cupido Santos, da Silva, Mancone, Falese, Diotaiuti and Andrade. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alexandro Andrade, Santa Catarina State University, Florianopolis, Brazil

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