title: Trait and state anxiety in male and female cross-country runners.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between state/trait anxiety and competitive cross-country performance for males and females. A-trait and A-state pre- and post-competition were monitored in 38 females and 26 males at major meetings. The females' A-trait was correlated with pre-race A-state (p less than .05) which was itself correlated significantly with race performance (p less than .05). A significant post-race A-state reduction occurred only with the better runners. The correlation between A-trait and pre-race A-state was also found in the male athletes (p less than .05) while A-trait significantly correlated with race performance (p less than .05). A-state was significantly reduced post-race, the greatest decrease being observed in the top performers. It is concluded that trait as well as transient dispositions are relevant when psychological determinants of performance are considered.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012420:Running; D013178:Sports Medicine; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires