Who are your target participants, what is your target participant group size, and why? (also state if there are any exclusion criteria, e.g., “individuals who do not exercise” and explain why you have an exclusion criteria)?
| The Contribution of Physical Exercise to Mental Health Among University Students During COVID-19 Lockdown in the UK.
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| I) Brief background and main research aim(s) (200-400 words).
Provide a sense of what is already known about this topic, what is missing from our knowledge, and how your research is justified in terms of its contribution to the literature. In other words, state the rationale of your project. |
| Since March 2020, worldwide, countries began implementing a strict control on movement to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in order to relieve pressure on key workers. UK measures included the closures of educational facilities; bans on social gatherings; the closure of retail; all sporting and exercise facilities; and a strict limit on contact with others (1). A global survey on youth and COVID-19 was conducted on 12,000 young people aged 18-29 in 2020 and found the impact of COVID-19 to be systematic, deep and disproportionate (2,3) the UK have added and reinforced this message through Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) who warn that individuals aged between 7-24 are at risk of being disproportionally harmed by the global pandemic. For many young people this includes the psychological impacts that isolation and disrupted educational provisions and attainment has caused at critical timepoints (4, 5). Dewa et al. (2021) found that, for those aged 16–24, mental health has significantly worsened since lockdown, and dysfunctional coping strategies, such as substance misuse, sleep problems, and self-blame are associated with this (6)
There is currently limited research on the impact that lockdowns have had on young people’s exercise behaviours and how this relates to mental health. This proposed research aims to contribute to the literature as it will explore exercise behaviours and mental health throughout these periods of lockdown.
Research hypotheses- – There will be a significant difference in physical activity/ exercise behaviour between the three time periods – There will be a significant difference in self-reported mental health and wellbeing before during and after lockdown.
Qualitative Research Aims – To investigate the relationship between mental health and exercise during COVID – To investigate the impact lockdown has had on exercise behaviours and mental health
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| II) Method.
a) Participants Who are your target participants, what is your target participant group size, and why? (also state if there are any exclusion criteria, e.g., “individuals who do not exercise” and explain why you have an exclusion criteria)? |
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My target participants are university students who experienced lockdown in the UK.
My target group size is between approximately 50 participants, this will provide sufficient power for quantitative analysis and for qualitative data from the open-ended questions. |
| b) Recruitment procedure
How are you going to recruit the participants (e.g., via the UWE Psychology Participant Pool, social media, or snowballing)? |
| Recruitment will be done through the UWE Psychology Participant Pool
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| c) Data collection method(s)
What is your research design and method(s) of data collection? e.g., Quantitative: computer-based task, questionnaire, experimental design; Qualitative: interview, focus group, survey, story completion task, or vignettes; Mixed-method |
| My research design will be mixed design.
The quantitative section will include a quantitative questionnaire measuring both exercise and mental health. There will also be a series of open ended questions, this will be open response, qualitative data. |
