A Preliminary Study on University Students′ Attitudes Towards COVID-19

This research compared university student-athletes and other university students to analyze differences in attitudes towards COVID-19. The objective was to examine the impact of student-athletes′ attitudes on their future athletic activities and perform verification that will contribute to the deliberation and creation of university support measures for student-athletes. Google Forms were used to administer an online questionnaire to university students nationwide. The responses to questions on the questionnaire were recorded on either 5 or 8 point scales, as well as open-ended questions without word limitations at the end of the questionnaire. The results were analyzed by separating results into two cohorts; student-athletes and other university students, and then categorizing responses to each question as positive or negative. Cross-tabulation was used and then Fischer′s exact test was performed. To analyze the open-ended questions, KH-Coder3 software, which excels at Japanese analysis and is used in a great deal of research, was used. The analysis found a significant difference for some questions. In particular, a greater percentage of student-athletes than other university students felt unease regarding infection at university facilities, the impact of infection on university life, and the impact on activities from April 2020 onwards. Some of the reasons for the higher percentage of responses indicating unease were the lack of transparency in student life, with universities not defining clear approaches.