Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Perceived Stress, Anxiety, Mood, and Training Quality in Elite Athletes.

Sociodemographic information and training characteristics

Sociodemographic information and training characteristics Participants asked to provide sociodemographic information. Also, the difference in training frequency, duration, and quality after COVID-19 pandemic measured via 22 self-created questions.

Time frame: at inclusion

The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)

The Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck et al., 1988) has been widely used to measure the severity of anxiety by self-report and showed to has internal consistency and high test-retest reliability. The Turkish version of the BAI proved to be a reliable and valid measure (Ulusoy et al., 1993). The participant rates how much each symptom has bothered the participant in the past week in the 21-item self-report questionnaire. The symptoms are rated on a four-point scale, ranging from ''not at all'' (0) to ''severely'' (4).

Time frame: one week

The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)

The Visual Analogue Scale (0 not stressed at all - 10 maximum amount of stress) used to measure self-reported stress and anxiety in elite athletes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The VAS showed to be an efficient tool for assessing self-reported stress and anxiety.

Time frame: at inclusion

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)

The 14-item version of PSS scale asks patients how often they had experienced thoughts and feelings such as control irritations and stress during the previous one month, with responses ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (very often). The Turkish PSS proved to be a reliable and valid tool to measure perceived stress. The final score obtained by reversing responses (e.g., 0 = 4, 1 = 3, 2 = 2, 3 = 1 \& 4 = 0) to the four positively stated items (items 4, 5, 7, \& 8) and then summing across all scale items. Higher scores indicating higher levels of perceived stress.

Time frame: one month

Satisfaction with Life Scale

The Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, \& Griffin, 1985) is a 5-item measure designed to measure global cognitive judgments of one's life satisfaction. The answers ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Items are summed to create a total score with higher scores indicating a greater degree of satisfaction with life.