PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSES, COPING STRATEGIES, AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY DURING THE COVID – 19 PANDEMIC: BULGARIAN PERSPECTIVE

Nowadays our global society faces big challenges and threats in the times of the first major pandemic. The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced governments to impose the lock-down policies around the world. Social isolation became a new normal form of living. After the first confirmed case on the 8th of March in Bulgaria, the government announced on the 14th of March the lock-down as a preventive strategy for the whole Bulgarian population. Under such circumstances, the big issue became the question of how to maintain the physical and mental health of people, and how to cope with the new reality. Based on this evidence the aim of the joint research study with Ohio State University, USA, entitled “Psychological Responses, Coping Strategies, and Physical Activity during the COVID – 19 Pandemic” has been proposed from the Bulgarian perspective as follows: 1. Investigate psychological responses, coping strategies, and physical activity during the COVID – 19 lock-down periods. 2. Examine the influence of physical activity as a coping strategy in psychological health and overall well-being during social isolation. To this end, an online questionnaire containing an adapted version of the short-form of International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF) has been used to assess the practiced level of physical activity and Metabolic Equivalents (MET) energy expenditure, PROMIS Item Bank v1.0 Emotional distress-Anxiety, Herth Hope Index (HHI) (Herth, 1992), and Brief Resilient Coping Scale BRCS (Sinclaire, Wallston, 2004) to evaluate psychological well-being during the social isolation. Evidence suggests that regular participation in physical activity helps decrease overall levels of anxiety and depression as a reliable coping strategy to overcome the social isolation and, as a whole, the negative aspects of lockdown