Multidimensional Pre-Competition Stress Profiles in Wheelchair Basketball: Associations with Cortisol and Psychological Indicators

This study examined pre-competition cortisol levels and psychological anticipation in wheelchair basketball athletes using a person-centred approach. Thirty-four male athletes (mean age: 35 ± 7.75 years) competing in a regional league provided saliva samples 35–50 min before competition and completed psychological assessments with the Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2R) and the Perceived Stress Scale. K-Means cluster analysis (k = 3), validated by Ward’s hierarchical clustering (ARI = 0.947; NMI = 0.892) and Bootstrap Jaccard stability (0.544–0.603), identified three exploratory stress profiles: Low Reactor (n = 5; low cortisol, anxiety, and stress), High Reactor (n = 20; moderate cortisol, high cognitive/physical anxiety), and Physiological Stress Reactor (n = 9; high cortisol, high stress, moderate anxiety). Significant group differences were observed for log(Cortisol) (H(2) = 17.095, p < 0.001, ε2 = 0.518), Cognitive Anxiety (H(2) = 13.900, p < 0.01, ε2 = 0.421), Somatic Anxiety (H(2) = 18.840, p < 0.001, ε2 = 0.571), and Perceived Stress (H(2) = 21.831, p < 0.001, ε2 = 0.662), while self-confidence did not differ. Exploratory logistic regression indicated that functional classification, years of sport participation, match location, and match result did not significantly predict the Physiological Stress Reactor membership. These findings suggest that pre-competition stress-related characteristics may manifest in different combinations of physiological and psychological indicators. The identified profiles should be considered exploratory and require validation in larger and independent samples.