Staying physically active during the COVID-19 pandemic: Assessing the roles of motivation, basic psychological needs, goal orientation and anticipatory sport persistence

Nationwide barriers to public and private sport institutions were implemented during COVID-19 lockdowns. Autonomous motivation, perceived fulfillment of basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) and goal orientation coincide with higher persistence rates in physical activity. The aim of this study is to investigate which factors are related to anticipatory sport persistence, a specific form of sport persistence. We conducted an online survey with N = 208 (74% female) participants. Correlation analyses showed that higher anticipatory sport persistence coincides with autonomous motivation (r = 0.314, p