Despite the global impact of COVID-19, studies comparing the effects of COVID-19 on population mental health across countries are sparse. This study aimed to compare anxiety and depression symptoms during the COVID-19 lockdown among adults from 11 countries and to examine their associations with country-level COVID-19 factors and personal COVID-19 exposure. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among adults (≥18 years) in 11 countries (Brazil, Bulgaria, China, India, Ireland, North Macedonia, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Turkey, United States). Mental health (anxiety, depression, resilient coping, hope) and other study data were collected between June–August 2020. Of the 13,263 participants, 62.8% were female and 51.7% were 18–34 years old. Participants living in Brazil had the highest anxiety and depression symptoms while participants living in Singapore had the lowest. Greater personal COVID-19 exposure was associated with increased anxiety and depression symptoms, but country-level COVID-19 factors were not. Higher levels of hope were associated with reduced anxiety and depression; higher levels of resilient coping were associated with reduced anxiety but not depression. Substantial variations exist in anxiety and depression symptoms across countries during the COVID-19 lockdown, with personal COVID-19 exposure being a significant risk factor. Strategies that mitigate COVID-19 exposure and enhance hope and resilience may reduce anxiety and depression during global emergencies.

Although considerable research indicates that mental energy is an important factor in many domains, including athletic performance (Cook and Davis, 2006), athletic mental energy (AME) has never been conceptualized and measured. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conceptualize and develop a reliable and valid instrument to assess AME. In Study 1, a focus group interview established the initial framework of AME. Study 2 used a survey to collect athletes' experiences of AME and develop a scale draft titled “Athletic Mental Energy Scale (AMES).” In Study 3, we examined the psychometric properties and the underlying structure of AMES via item analysis, internal consistency, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). In Study 4, we used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine AMES's factorial validity; and examined concurrent and discriminant validity by examining correlations with athletes' life stress, positive state of mind, and burnout. In study 5, we examined the measurement invariance of the 6-factor, 18-item AMES with Taiwanese and Malaysian samples. Study 6 examined the predictive validity by comparing AMES scores of successful and unsuccessful martial artists. Across these phases, results showed a 6-factor, 18-item AMES had adequate content validity, factorial structure, nomological validity, discriminant validity, predictive validity, measurement invariance, and reliability. We suggest future studies may use AMES to examine its relationships with athletes' cognition, affect, and performance. The application of AMES in sport psychology was also discussed.

Background: Health-promoting behaviour is an important concept for health education. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of validated instruments to measure levels of health-promoting behaviour in the Malaysian context. The purpose of this study was to validate a Malay-language version of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP-II) using a confirmatory approach. Methods: Participants were 997 university undergraduate students, with a mean age of 21 years (SD = 1.58). The majority of the participants (80.4%) were female. Health-promoting behaviour was assessed using the 52-item HPLP-II, which measures six components of health-promoting behaviour outcomes. HPLP-II was translated into the Malay language using standard forward and backward translation procedures. Participants then completed the HPLP-II Malay version (HPLP-II-M). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted using Mplus 8.0 software on the six domains of HPLP-II-M model. Results: The CFA result based on the hypothesised measurement model of six factors was aligned with the original HPLP-II, except for two low loading items which were subsequently removed from the CFA analysis. The final CFA measurement model with 50 items resulted in a good fit to the data based on RMSEA and SRMR fit indices (RMSEA = 0.046, 90%CI = 0.045, 0.048, SRMR = 0.062). The construct reliabilities for the HPLP-II-M subscales were acceptable, ranging from 0.737 to 0.878. Conclusion: The HPLP-II-M with six components of health-promoting behaviour outcomes and 50 items was considered valid and reliable for the present Malaysian sample.

Mood profiling has a long history in the field of sport and exercise. Several novel mood profile clusters were identified and described in the literature recently (Parsons-Smith et al., 2017). In the present study, we investigated whether the same clusters were evident in an Italian-language, sport and exercise context. The Italian Mood Scale (ITAMS; Quartiroli et al., 2017) was administered to 950 Italian-speaking sport participants (659 females, 284 males, 7 unspecified; age range = 16–63 year, M = 25.03, SD = 7.62) and seeded k-means clustering methodology applied to the responses. Six distinct mood profiles were identified, termed the iceberg, inverse iceberg, inverse Everest, shark fin, surface, and submerged profiles, which closely resembled those reported among English-speaking participants (Parsons-Smith et al., 2017). Significant differences were found in the distribution of specific mood profiles across gender and age groups. Findings supported the cross-cultural generalizability of the six mood profiles and offer new research avenues into their antecedents, correlates and behavioral consequences in Italian-language contexts.

This study’s purpose was to examine the structural relationship of the transtheoretical model (TTM) and the amount of physical activity (PA) among undergraduate students in health and medicine at Universiti Sains Malaysia. A cross-sectional study was carried out among students who took part in the co-curricular program. Co-curricular program includes activities that take place outside of the regular lectures or tutorials in the University. Students recruited through purposive sampling were informed that their participation was entirely voluntarily. Those interested completed the self-administered questionnaire, which consisted of the decisional balance, processes of change, self-efficacy, stages of change scales, and Godin leisure-time exercise questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Mplus version 8 for descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling analysis for inferential statistics. A total of 562 students participated in the study. The majority of the students was female (79.0%) and Malay (73.3%) and average of exercise sessions per week was 2.62, with a mean of 43.37 min per exercise session. The final structural model fit the data well based on several fit indices (SRMR = 0.046, RMSEA (CI: 90%) = 0.061 (0.045, 0.078), RMSEA p = 0.130). The model showed that stages of change significantly affected self-efficacy (p < 0.001), pros (benefits of exercise; p < 0.001), cons (barriers to exercise; p = 0.022), and processes of change (p < 0.001). The model also showed significant inter-relationships among the TTM constructs and supported seven hypotheses. Among all the variables examined, only processes of change significantly affected PA (p < 0.001). However, stages of change (p < 0.001) and pros (p =< 0.001) had significant indirect effects on PA via processes of change. The findings support that individuals’ stages of change affect their self-efficacy level, or the ability to make positive and negative decisions and perform behavior accordingly. The study confirms that making correct decisions and taking action accordingly can increase PA levels.