Physical activity and psychological distress during the COVID-19 lockdown: the role of mediators of resilience and perceived social support

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of mediators of resilience and perceived social support in the relationship between physical activity and psychological distress during the Covid-19 virus outbreak. The research method was correlation and the statistical population included Iranian adults (18-64 years) that 1115 male and female were selected as a sample from the people of Tehran and 10 other provinces from 5 geographical regions by random sampling. The International Physical Activity questionnaire, the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and Perceived Social Support was used for data collection. Using Spearman correlation coefficient, the relationships between research variables were calculated using SPSS25 software. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was also used to test the hypothetical model of direct and indirect relationships between physical activity, psychological distress, resilience, and perceived social support using PLS3 software. The results of modeling the structural equations indicated a good fit of the model. Findings showed a significant inverse relationship between physical activity and psychological distress (β = -0.314; P≤ 00 0.001) and indirect pathway coefficient of physical activity and psychological distress mediated by perceived social support (β = -0.35; P≤0.001) and resilience (β =-0.057; P≤0.001) were significant. It is suggested that in order to reduce psychological distress in the period of Covid-19 virus outbreak, feasible physical activity programs be used simultaneously with perceived social support and resilience intervention.