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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1472541
This article is part of the Research Topic Psychological Factors in Physical Education and Sport - Volume V View all 14 articles
Navigating Exercise Attitudes and Emotional Positivity in Adulthood During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Shandong Province
Provisionally accepted
Ran Meng 
Chen DONG *- Shandong Sport University, Jinan, China
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a cross-sectional study among 404 adults in Shandong Province, China, discovered a robust positive correlation between positive emotions and attitudes towards physical exercise, with a notable emotional positivity ratio of 2.01±1.38% among respondents. The quantitative analysis exposed significant differences in attitudes and emotional positivity based on gender, age, and education levels. Specifically, male participants showed a higher mean score in behavioral intention and control, while older adults (>41 years) demonstrated more positive exercise attitudes with a higher total score of 4.05±0.54 compared to younger age groups. Moreover, respondents with a graduate degree and above reported the highest emotional positivity rate, outpacing those with a college or undergraduate degree and high school education and below. These quantifiable insights indicate that demographic factors play a crucial role in shaping attitudes and emotional responses towards exercise, especially during a global health crisis.
Keywords: Physical Exercise Attitudes, emotional positivity, COVID-19 pandemic, Demographic influences, health behaviors
Received: 29 Jul 2024; Accepted: 04 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Meng and DONG. 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:
Chen DONG, Shandong Sport University, Jinan, China
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