Sources of stress and coping strategies of US soccer officials

Abstract

Stress from officiating has been found to have a profound impact on official's mental health, attentional focus, performance, satisfaction with their profession and dropout intentions. Although some studies have been conducted regarding the frequency and intensity of the major sources of stress experienced by sport officials, no research has attempted to determine how sport officials cope or attempt to cope with these stressors. Through a national soccer official organization, questionnaire packets were administered to over 200 officials. Questionnaire packets included sources of stress and ways of coping questionnaires. The top sources of stress experienced by the officials included ‘conflict between officiating and family demands,’ ‘making a controversial call’ and ‘conflict between officiating and work demands.’ The top acute coping strategies utilized by the officials included ‘thought hard about steps to manage’ and ‘asked fellow officials what they did’ (problem‐focused strategies). Other results indicated the importance of officials' learning and implementing numerous stress management interventions, including time management, restructuring unproductive thoughts, physiological relaxation techniques, communication training and mental skill training techniques such as imagery, relaxation breathing and self talk. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Psychological Characteristics of Performance Under Pressure in Professional Rugby Union Referees

“…As found in previous research (e.g., Mathers & Brodie, 2011;Voight, 2009;Wolfson & Neave, 2007) the rugby union referees adopted various problem-and emotion-coping strategies during performance to manage successfully the stressors and emotional response encountered. This included proactive-coping and informational social support (from mentors, experts and sport psychologists) prior to games; acceptance, ownership, task / process focus and emotion-focused coping during games; and finally, guided reflective practice post-game.…”

“…Although a number of studies (e.g., Neil et al, 2013;Voight, 2009) have identified time pressures (conflict between demands of family life and officiating), fear of physical harm, and the crowd as stressors that affect referees, they were not found within this study. This is likely due to the professional context in which the participants worked.…”

Personality, individual differences, stress and health

“…While the investigation of these factors has been useful in identifying coping strategies that may lead to improved illness outcomes and increased functioning in the chronically ill, the literature has been criticized for an over-reliance on dispositional coping strategies. The adoption of more specifi c, acute coping measures that may interact with generalized coping strategies is therefore advocated (Coyne & Racioppo, 2000;Voight, 2009). …”

O estresse na arbitragem de ginástica rítmica: uma revisão sistemática

“…No que diz respeito à análise deste constructo psicológico, os árbitros têm recebido menor atenção nas investigações sobre os fatores causadores de estresse em suas atividades laborais esportivas quando comparados a atletas e treinadores (ANSHEL; KANG;JUBENVILLE, 2013 PORTER, 1997, MIRJAMALI et al, 2012TSORBATZOUDIS et al, 2005;VOIGHT, 2009).…”

“…Dentre os estudos que analisaram fatores estressantes na arbitragem esportiva, é possível notar que a maioria investigou árbitros de modalidades coletivas, como basquete (ANSHEL; WEINBERG, 1996; KAISSIDIS-RODAFINOS; ANSHEL; PORTER, 1997;MIRJAMALI et al, 2012;ROSE JÚNIOR;LEMOS, 2002;SILVA et al, 2010;STEWART et al, 2004), futebol GENCAY, 2009;MIRJAMALI et al, 2012;VOIGHT, 2009), futsal (FERREIRA et al, 2009), handebol (MIRJAMALI et al, 2012TSORBATZOUDIS et al, 2005), vôlei (MIRJAMALI et al, 2012;SILVA et al, 2010;ELLERY, 1994), hóquei (DORSCH;PASKEVICH, 2007), rugby (RAINEY; HARDY, 1999) e beisebol (RAINEY, 1995). Observa-se que em todos os estudos supracitados a análise do estresse em árbitros não direciona o seu foco investigativo para os esportes individuais como, por exemplo, as ginásticas.…”