The effect of anxiety about catching COVİD-19 on motivation, future anxiety and mental endurance in TFF regional Amateur League football players

The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of athletes' Covid-19 Anxiety on their motivation, future anxiety, and mental endurance, and to investigate the differences according to demographic characteristics. The sample of the research consists of football players from a total of four teams from the province of Adana in the 5th Group of the Turkish Football Federation Regional Amateur League. In this context, ninety-six athletes were reached within the scope of the research. As a data collection tool, personal information form, Athletes' Covid-19 Catching Anxiety Scale, Sports Motivation Scale, Mental Toughness Scale and Future Anxiety Scale were used. All data of the study were analyzed in the SPSS 28.0 package program. In the research, skewness-kurtosis values were considered to measure whether the data showed a normal distribution. According to the analysis results, parametric tests were applied, and t-test was used to compare two groups, and one-way ANOVA analysis was used to compare three or more groups. At the same time, Pearson correlation analysis and simple regression analysis were applied. According to the findings obtained as a result of the research; it was found that the levels of Covid-19 Anxiety and Mental Endurance of the athletes showed significant differences according to their marital status (p<0,05). No difference was found between athletes' perceptions of motivation to approach success, Future Anxiety, and marital status (p>0,05). It has been determined that the levels of Covid-19 Anxiety and Future Anxiety of athletes vary significantly depending on their educational status. A significant difference was found between the age and income variables of the athletes and their future anxiety. No differences were found in the athletes' perceptions of Covid-19 Catching Anxiety, Motivation to Approach Success, Mental Endurance, Future Anxiety in terms of age, football experience, position, and income variables. A positive and significant relationship was found between athletes' Covid-19 Catching Anxiety scores and their future concerns. There was no relationship between Covid-19 Catching Anxiety scores and motivation and mental endurance in sports. As a result, as the participants' concerns about catching Covid-19 increase, their future concerns also increase. Depending on the results of the research, it was concluded that the athletes' perception of anxiety about catching Covid-19 was an important predictor of their future anxiety, but it was not a predictor of their perception of mental toughness and motivation in sports.