Please cite this article as: E. Campbell, M. Poudevigne, R. Irving et al. Psychophysiological stress and performance in Jamaican junior track and field athletes, Performance Enhancement & Health, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.peh.2020.100171 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model PEH-100171; No. of Pages 10 Performance Enhancement & Health xxx (xxxx) xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Performance Enhancement & Health journa l h om epage: www.elsevier.com/locate/peh Psychophysiological stress and performance in Jamaican junior track and field athletes Eon Campbell a,∗ , Melanie Poudevigne b , Rachael Irving a , Lowell Dilworth c , Wendel Abel d , Janel Bailey a a Department of Basic Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica b Health and Fitness Management, Clayton State University, Morrow, Georgia, United States c Department of Pathology, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica d Department of Community Health and Psychiatry, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 23 July 2019 Received in revised form 10 June 2020 Accepted 30 June 2020 Available online xxx Keywords: Sport performance Trait anxiety Salivary cortisol Gender Threat state Challenge state a b s t r a c t The intents of the study were (i) to investigate changes in psychophysiological responses during different training phases of a Jamaican junior track and field season; (ii) to identify the predictive relationships between salivary cortisol, trait anxiety and performance across a season and (iii) to characterize whether salivary cortisol mediates relationships between trait anxiety and performance. The study was grounded in the Theory of Challenge and Threat State in Athletes (TCTSA). Fifty-one Jamaican junior track and field athletes included 26 females (age: 15.9 ± 1.0 years) and 25 males (age: 16.4 ± 1.7 years) participated in the study. Salivary cortisol and trait anxiety levels were collected before bedtime (between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.), three times across a season: i.e., during a 12-week preparatory (PREP) phase and twice during a 12-week competitive phase [during an 8-week pre-competition (PRE-COMP) and during a 4- week peak competition (COMP) phase]. Performance data were collected throughout the competitive phase. A main effect emerged for salivary cortisol levels (p < 0.001) and trait anxiety scores (p < 0.001) across the athletic season. The competition phase elicited the highest levels of salivary cortisol, and trait anxiety. A main effect of gender emerged for competitive trait anxiety (female > male). Trait anxiety negatively predicted performance during both PRE-COMP and COMP phases. Salivary cortisol negatively predicted performance during COMP, explaining 15 % of unique variance in performance beyond trait anxiety. Mediation indicated a significant indirect effect (i.e., the effect of trait anxiety through cortisol on performance; R 2 = 0.33, p < 0.001) but an insignificant direct effect. Findings suggests cortisol, trait anxiety and performance are related and jointly change with competition demands. The negative relations between psychophysiological responses with performance may have indicated athletes responded to peak competition in terms of threat rather than challenge. The study showed that the TCTSA, may provide a useful framework to guide training tasks helpful for performance. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Performance in sports is a terminal measure of physical and psy- chological outcomes as well as an athlete’s readiness to compete (Saw, Main, & Gastin, 2015). Athletes execute complex sporting skills in competitive settings, which are prevalent in sports. Exe- Abbreviations: SAS-2, sport anxiety scale-2; PAC, pituitary-adreno-cortical; TCTSA, theory of challenge and threat states in athletes. ∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Basic Medical Sciences-Biochemistry Section, Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies Mona, Kingston 7 Jamaica. E-mail address: eon.campbell@mymona.uwi.edu (E. Campbell). cution of sporting skills in a competition can be influenced by the athletes’ psychological state, such as the perception of the situation as a challenge or a threat (Jones, Meijen, McCarthy, & Sheffield, 2009; Meijen, Turner, Jones, Sheffield, & McCarthy, 2020). Specifically, athletes who appraised a situation as a challenge will experience positive emotional states, perceived as beneficial to per- formance, in contrast, to the negative emotional states likely to be experienced in a threat appraisal and are perceived as harmful to performance (Jones et al., 2009; Moore, Vine, Wilson, & Freeman, 2012). Previous research has suggested that competitive trait anxi- ety, defined as the tendency to respond to competitive situations as threatening, is greater in individual sport (e.g., weightlifting, track and field) than team sports (Judge et al., 2016). This means high https://doi.org/10.1016/j.peh.2020.100171 2211-2669/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.