THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY LEVELS OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER CANDIDATES

The goal of this study was to compare the levels of physical activity during leisure time of physical education teacher candidates by gender and grade level, and to see if the level of leisure time physical activity differed before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. A total of 168 teacher candidates, consisting of 100 females and 68 males, who were selected based on a convenient sampling method, participated in the study. The Demographic Information Form, which was prepared by researchers and included questions on gender, grade, and age variables, and the Leisure-time Physical Activity Questionnaire, were used to collect data in the research. The Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests were used to analyze the data. As a result of the research, it was found that there was no statistically significant difference between the scores of the first, second, third, and fourth grade female and male teacher candidates with respect to the level of physical activity in their leisure time physical activity level before and during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, there is a statistically significant difference between the levels of physical activity in the leisure time of the physical education teacher candidates before and during the COVID-19 outbreak, and the levels of physical activity of the teacher candidates’ declined during the COVID-19 outbreak. Research findings revealed a negative impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on physical activity, and various suggestions were presented to policymakers in this direction.