Gender and Age Association with Physical Activity and Mood States of Children and Adolescents in Social Isolation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 had a huge impact on daily life. It greatly reduced our physical activity (PA) and caused an increase in negative emotions. The emotions of different ages and sexes were impacted during the pandemic but the most severely influenced were adolescents. Therefore, the study’s main purpose was to explore the influence of age and gender on adolescent physical activity and emotions during the pandemic. Methods: The subjects of the present study were 14,045 adolescents aged 10–18 years from the Yan’an Shaanxi province. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF) was used to investigate the PA and Profile of Mood States (POMS) was used to investigate adolescents’ mood states. Results: we found that girls and boys have significant differences in total PA and moderate PA (p < 0.01). The adolescents’ PA levels of different ages had significant differences (p < 0.01). Meanwhile, boys had higher negative emotion scores (anger, fatigue, depression, confusion) than girls. Girls, in contrast, had higher positive emotion scores (self-esteem, vigor) (p < 0.01). With increasing age, the increase in emotional states seems to diminish (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Results show long-term social isolation causes reduced PA and increased negative mood states. Girls’ PA was higher than boys, and boys had higher levels of mood disturbances. PA and levels of mood disturbances were significantly associated with age from 10 to 18 years old. This research study aimed to help the correlation department understand the relationship between PA and mood states of adolescents of different ages and sexes during COVID-19. Providing health promotion and preventative advice for different sex and age groups has expanded globally.