The aim of the study was to explore emotional and cognitive aspects of subjective wellbeing and flow in music and sports students during the lockdown imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (314 higher education sports and music students) answered questions about measure of flow, satisfaction with life, satisfaction with studying, positive and negative affect, and COVID-19 impact. The results revealed differences in eight flow dimensions and a global flow score in favor of sports students. Differences were also found in affect: sports students experienced more positive affect and less negative affect than musicians. However, there were no significant differences with regard to satisfaction with life or satisfaction with study, and music and sports students perceived the COVID-19 impact equally. Gender differences were found for three flow dimensions and the global flow score (female students experienced flow less frequently than males) and satisfaction with studying (higher scores for female students). However, no gender differences were detected for satisfaction with life, positive and negative affect, or COVID-19 impact. The results of regression analyses showed that satisfaction with life and studying, positive and negative affect, and COVID-19 impact could all be predicted on the basis of flow dimensions.

Although flow has been studied extensively in music and sport, there is a lack of research comparing these two domains. With the aim of filling this gap, elite musicians and top athletes in Slovenia were contrasted in the current study. Differences for flow and satisfaction with life between elite musicians and top athletes were explored. Individual versus group performance setting and gender differences were considered. 452 participants; 114 elite Slovenian musicians (mean age 23.46 years) and 338 top Slovenian athletes (mean age 22.40 years) answered questions about flow and satisfaction with life measures. The results show differences between elite musicians and top athletes in four flow dimensions: transformation of time and autotelic experience were higher in musicians while clear goals and unambiguous feedback were higher in athletes. However, differences in global flow were not confirmed. Elite musicians and top athletes experienced flow more often in group than in individual performance settings and surprisingly it was experienced more in male than in female top performers. Satisfaction with life has a positive correlation with all nine dimensions of flow, but only challenge-skill balance was a significant predictor for satisfaction with life.

Fear of water is the strongest predictor for no or low swimming competencies. Some individuals will never learn to swim due to their complete avoidance of water, whereas others might have difficulty with learning due to the fact that they cannot sufficiently relax their body to facilitate floating or swimming. Therefore, it is important to identify these people and to establish effective teaching strategies that can best help this specific population. Recognizing this, there is a clear need for an assessment tool which can help swim teachers and coaches identify people with a fear of water. The study aimed to first develop and then validate a fear of water assessment questionnaire (FWAQ). 2074 male and female people participated in the creation of a 40-item questionnaire. The exploratory factor showed that a 3 factor solution including 20 items was most sensiblesuch a solution accounted for 31.69% of explained variance and the Cronbach's alpha α was 0.831, which makes for a reliable enough solution. A subsequent discriminant function analysis correctly classified 98.2% of participants. We concluded that the findings from this study support that the FWAQ is a valid scale that effectively identify people with fear of water.

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