Investigation of the relationship between regular exercise and psychological well-being during the pandemic process

This study aims to investigate the relationship between regular exercise and levels of psychological well-being among individuals exercising in fitness centers during the pandemic period. The study's population consists of individuals who are members of fitness centers in the Kayseri province, both those who engage in regular sports and those who do not. The sample of the study comprises a total of 134 individuals with fitness center memberships, including 60 females and 74 males. Data collection utilized the Personal Information Form, Exercise Stage of Change Short Questionnaire, Exercise Self- Efficacy Scale, Exercise Decisional Balance Scale, and Psychological Well-Being scales. For data analysis, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage) and hypothesis testing were performed using the SPSS 22.00 statistical software package. Skewness was used in the normality test to determine whether the data followed a normal distribution. If the skewness coefficient of scores obtained from a continuous variable remained within ±1, it could be interpreted that the scores did not significantly deviate from normal distribution. As the scales and sub-dimension scores exhibited normal distribution, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used for comparisons based on variables. When a significant difference was observed in the MANOVA test, the Tukey-Dunnett-c post hoc test was used to determine which groups exhibited the difference. The significance level in the analysis was accepted as p < 0.05. In the conducted statistical analyses, no significant differences were found between the gender variable and dependent variables. However, significant differences were identified between age groups, educational levels, income levels, and dependent variables to some extent. Generally, the differences were observed in psychological well-being levels, and differences were only detected between age groups and exercise self-efficacy levels. Participants' perception indicated that they felt good during the pandemic period, believed in the benefits of regular exercise, and possessed the self-efficacy required to exercise under any circumstances Keywords: Pandemic, exercise, psychological, well-being