Past studies have suggested that the cortisol awakening response (CAR) is a robust index for assessing daily stress. The present study examined the stability of CAR in individuals and the relationship between CAR and moods states and the influence of gender on CAR. CAR was measured in two successive days. Participants were student athletes (men=36, women=12) in a university athletic club that participated in club practice over five days a week. They were instructed to collect saliva just after and 30 minutes following awakening. The Moods was measured using the short form of the Profile of Moods States (POMS-S). The results indicated high stability of CAR values for the two successive days. Furthermore, there was a relationship between CAR and negative moods. Moreover, women showed significantly lager increases of the early morning free cortisol levels after awakening compared to men.

Kellmann and Kallus (2011) have developed a scale for evaluating recovery, which is named “The Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes (RESTQ-76 Sport).” This scale has contributed to the remarkable development of sport psychological studies on recovery and has been translated into various languages in different countries. Moreover, it has been used as an index for providing scientifically derived support for athletes participating in world championship events and Olympic games. The usefulness of this scale has been empirically supported. However, a Japanese version of RESTQ-76 Sport has not been developed to date. The Japanese version of RESTQ-Sport 76 was developed, and its reliability and validity were examined as a new index for monitoring in athletes. Participants were university and high school students (N=681, 424 men and 257 women, aged =15-23) participating in athletic clubs and doing sports daily. Cronbach’s α was calculated to examine the internal consistency. Moreover, principal factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to examine the reproducibility of the factor structure, and correlation analysis was conducted with the Japanese version of POMS-S for examining the concurrent validity of the scale. The results indicated that the Japanese version of RESTQ-76 Sport had adequate reliability and validity that was similar to the original version, which supported Kellmann and Kallus (2001). In the future, this scale is expected to be a new index for evaluating the balance between stress and recovery in athletes.