Salivary Hormone and Anxiety Responses to Free-Throw Shooting Competition in Collegiate Female Basketball Players
in Journal of Clinical Sport PsychologyClick name to view affiliation
This study assessed the hormonal and psychological responses to a free-throw shooting competition in twelve NCAA Division I female collegiate basketball players. Salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase, and testosterone were collected before and after the competition, in addition to a self-reported measure of anxiety. Using nonparametric statistics, cortisol (Z = –3.06, p = .002) and testosterone (Z = –2.67, p = .008) levels were significantly higher precompetition compared with postcompetition. There were no statistically significant differences between winners and losers for anxiety or hormone responses. Concentration disruption (rho = .63, p = .03) and total competitive anxiety (rho = .68, p = .02) were positively correlated with precompetition cortisol. Concentration disruption also correlated positively with postcompetition cortisol (rho = .62 p = .03) and postcompetition testosterone (rho = .64, p = .03). Future studies are needed to examine the psychological and physiological stress responses of basketball players during different competition tasks.
Madrigal is with the Dept. of Kinesiology, California State University–Long Beach, Long Beach, CA. Wilson is with Human Movement Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA.
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