Matteo Campagna
ITEN
Menu
Menu

Female archers report more pre-competition anxiety than male archers

4 studies · 338 archers measured

ForContextAgainst201820202022202420262019, context, n = 1562026, context, n = 802021, for, n = 572021, context, n = 572026, context, n = 45
Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

The clearest difference comes from the field. At the 2011 Asian Championships, five to ten minutes before shooting, 29 women recurve archers from national squads describe themselves as more worried than the 28 men (5.61 against 3.64 on a nine-point scale) and more keyed up (7.61 against 6.85), and the gap stays the same in qualification, in the individual matches and in the team event. Age, years of practice and international appearances do not differ between the two groups, so it is not a matter of experience. The effect sizes reported, though, are nearly double and nearly triple those that can be worked out from the article's own table. Three studies point the other way, but all appear in journals with questionable editorial standards, so they do not move the status: in 156 Turkish archers state anxiety is 60.00 in the women and 60.87 in the men; in 80 Indian juniors, an hour before competing, boys and girls report the same cognitive anxiety, the same somatic anxiety and the same self-confidence; in 45 provincial-level Iranian archers cognitive anxiety is 15.2 in men and 16.1 in women, with no difference. None of these studies links anxiety to how the archers shot, and a group average says nothing about any individual woman archer.

Also phrased as: "gender differences in competitive anxiety"; "pre-competition anxiety in men and women"; "are women archers more anxious"; "competitive anxiety and sex"; "pre-competition nerves in women archers"

In practice

You hear that women archers feel competition more tensely and that in the minutes before shooting they need different handling from the men.

Evidence

  • 2019
    Context Archers Published later

    156 Turkish archers drawn from the entrants to the 2018 Turkey Cup, 42 women and 114 men aged from 14 to over 47, recurve and compound, assessed with the Spielberger inventory: state anxiety is 60.00 ± 10.09 in the women and 60.87 ± 9.70 in the men (t = -0.491, p = 0.624). No difference between the sexes; the paper does not say when the questionnaire was completed, only 11% of the sample were on the national team, and the journal has questionable editorial standards. Under decision D7 it stays as context.

    Examination of the Level of State- Trial Anxiety of Elite Level Archers from Several Variables Questionable venue · Haluk Saçakli

  • 2019
    Context Archers Published later

    In the same study trait anxiety, the general tendency to be anxious rather than the anxiety of the moment, is 42.21 ± 8.32 in the women and 39.47 ± 9.23 in the men. The author reports the difference as significant (p = 0.028), but the printed t is 1.071, and working it out from the means and standard deviations in the table gives a p of about 0.09. It is not pre-competition anxiety, and it stays as context.

    Examination of the Level of State- Trial Anxiety of Elite Level Archers from Several Variables Questionable venue · Haluk Saçakli

  • 2021
    For Archers Published later

    29 women and 28 men recurve archers from national squads at the 2011 Asian Championships, asked five to ten minutes before shooting in qualification, in the individual matches and in the team event: cognitive anxiety is 5.61 in women against 3.64 in men on a nine-point scale (F(1,55) = 26.63, p < 0.001, eta squared 0.33). The authors give a d of 1.84, but working it out from their own table gives about 1.0.

    Sex-based differences in cognitive anxiety and felt arousal of elite archers: a field study · Maryam Abdoshahi, Miran Kondric, Chung-Ju Huang

  • 2021
    For Archers Published later

    In the same study felt arousal is also higher in the women, 7.61 against 6.85 (F(1,55) = 13.23, p < 0.001, eta squared 0.19). The reported d is 1.64, while the one that follows from the table is about 0.6: a difference of 0.76 points out of nine.

    Sex-based differences in cognitive anxiety and felt arousal of elite archers: a field study · Maryam Abdoshahi, Miran Kondric, Chung-Ju Huang

  • 2021
    Context Archers Published later

    The gap between the sexes stays the same across the three stages of the competition: the interaction between sex and stage is not significant for anxiety (F(2,110) = 0.22) or for arousal (F(2,110) = 1.56). What changes with the stage is everyone's anxiety, higher before the matches than before qualification.

    Sex-based differences in cognitive anxiety and felt arousal of elite archers: a field study · Maryam Abdoshahi, Miran Kondric, Chung-Ju Huang

  • 2021
    Context Archers Published later

    The two groups do not differ in age (26.40 ± 3.90 years in men, 27.10 ± 5.40 in women), years of practice (7.95 against 8.11) or international appearances (2.51 against 2.86), all with p > 0.05: the difference in anxiety is not explained by experience.

    Sex-based differences in cognitive anxiety and felt arousal of elite archers: a field study · Maryam Abdoshahi, Miran Kondric, Chung-Ju Huang

  • 2026
    Context Archers Published later

    80 Indian junior recurve archers, 50 boys and 30 girls, CSAI-2 completed about an hour before competing: somatic anxiety 1.69 ± 0.38 against 1.75 ± 0.52 (p = 0.992), cognitive anxiety 1.88 ± 0.54 against 1.81 ± 0.61 (p = 0.49), self-confidence 3.16 against 3.07 (p = 0.441), as mean item scores from 1 to 4. No difference between the sexes; the journal has questionable editorial standards. Under decision D7 it stays as context.

    Exploring Gender Differences in Competitive Anxiety and Performance in Junior Recurve Archers Questionable venue · Namchan Norbu Bhutia, Atanu Ghosh, Snehunsu Adhikari

  • 2026
    Context Archers Published later

    45 provincial-level Iranian recurve archers, 28 men and 17 women, in a study on diet: pre-competition cognitive anxiety is 15.2 ± 4.1 in men and 16.1 ± 3.8 in women (p = 0.471). The comparison between the sexes is a side finding, the female sample is small and the journal has questionable editorial standards. Under decision D7 it stays as context.

    Relationship between dietary tryptophan intake, pre-competition cognitive anxiety and shooting accuracy in archers Questionable venue · Yalda Darvishi

Status history

  1. 2019 Not studied The first comparison between the sexes comes from 156 Turkish archers, 42 women and 114 men, drawn from the entrants to the 2018 Turkey Cup: on the Spielberger inventory state anxiety is 60.00 in the women and 60.87 in the men, with no difference (p = 0.624). Trait anxiety, the general tendency to be anxious rather than the anxiety of the moment, is slightly higher in the women, 42.21 against 39.47, but the reported p does not match the means and, recalculated, is not significant. It is not known when the questionnaire was filled in, and the journal has questionable editorial standards, which in this registry do not decide a status: the result stays as context and the question has not yet been studied.
  2. 2021 Reported The first comparison in a journal without reservations comes from the field, with data collected ten years earlier at the 2011 Asian Championships: 29 women and 28 men recurve archers from national squads, asked five to ten minutes before shooting at three stages of the same competition. The women describe themselves as more worried (5.61 against 3.64 out of nine) and more keyed up (7.61 against 6.85), and the difference stays the same at all three stages, so it is a different starting level rather than an effect of the moment. Age, years of practice and international appearances do not differ. It points the opposite way to the Turkish comparison of 2019, which appears in a questionable venue and does not decide the status. It is a single study, with two single-item questions and effect sizes inflated relative to the table: reported.
  3. 2026 Reported Two comparisons arrive that find nothing. In 80 Indian junior recurve archers, 50 boys and 30 girls, the questionnaire filled in an hour before competing gives the same somatic anxiety, the same cognitive anxiety and the same self-confidence in both sexes (p between 0.44 and 0.99). In 45 provincial-level Iranian archers pre-competition cognitive anxiety is 15.2 in men and 16.1 in women (p = 0.471). Both appear in journals with questionable editorial standards, like the Turkish study of 2019, and involve archers of a lower level than those of 2021, and in the second the comparison between the sexes is a side finding: three null results in questionable venues beside a supporting one in a sound venue are not enough to make the question contested. The status stays reported.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Female archers report more pre-competition anxiety than male archers (Version 3). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/women-archers-pre-competition-anxiety

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_sessoansiapregara,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Female archers report more pre-competition anxiety than male archers},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/women-archers-pre-competition-anxiety},
  note = {Version 3; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Other claims in this domain

See all claims on mind and attention