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Published in: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction 2/2022

01-04-2022 | Addiction | Original Article

Exercise Addiction During the COVID-19 Pandemic: an International Study Confirming the Need for Considering Passion and Perfectionism

Authors: Ricardo de la Vega, Lucia Jiménez Almendros, Roberto Ruíz Barquín, Szilvia Boros, Zsolt Demetrovics, Attila Szabo

Published in: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction | Issue 2/2022

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Abstract

Various levels of lockdown due to COVID-19 limit people’s habitual physical activity. Individuals addicted to exercise, health-oriented, and team-exercisers could be the most affected. We examined the COVID-19-related changes in exercise volume in 1079 exercisers from eight Spanish-speaking nations based on exercise addiction categories, primary reasons for exercise, and forms of exercise. The COVID-19-related decrease in exercise volume was 49.24% in the sample. The proportion of the risk of exercise addiction was 15.2%. Most (81.7%) of the participants exercised for a health-related reason. These exercisers reported lesser decrease in their exercise volume than those exercising for social reasons. The risk of exercise addiction was inversely related to changes in exercise volume, but after controlling for passion and perfectionism the relationship vanished. The reported effect of COVID-19 on training did not differ between the exercise addiction groups. The findings also confirm that exercise addiction research should control for passion and perfectionism.
Footnotes
1
A version with four subscales also exists, but the psychometric properties of the six-subscale Spanish version are superior to that of four-subscale version.
 
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Metadata
Title
Exercise Addiction During the COVID-19 Pandemic: an International Study Confirming the Need for Considering Passion and Perfectionism
Authors
Ricardo de la Vega
Lucia Jiménez Almendros
Roberto Ruíz Barquín
Szilvia Boros
Zsolt Demetrovics
Attila Szabo
Publication date
01-04-2022
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction / Issue 2/2022
Print ISSN: 1557-1874
Electronic ISSN: 1557-1882
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00433-7

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