David W. Rainey

Sources of stress, burnout and intention to terminate among rugby union referees

We examined sources of stress, burnout and intention to terminate among rugby union referees. Questionnaires were returned by 682 of 1175 referees (58%) from Wales, Scotland and England. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed four correlated sources of stress factors (performance concerns, time pressure, interpersonal conflict and fear of physical harm), which accounted for 49.6% of the variance. Referees believed the first three factors to be mildly related to their stress. They believed fear of physical harm to be unrelated to their stress. A structural model hypothesizing that time pressure and interpersonal conflict predict burnout, and that age and burnout predict intention to terminate refereeing, fit the observed data. The goodness-of-fit index for this model was 0.96. Our results and those of other studies indicate that interpersonal conflict and time pressure are common sources of stress for sport officials and are frequently related to their burnout experiences. Also, age and burnout are frequently, although only marginally, related to intention to terminate.

RATINGS OF STRESS BY RUGBY REFEREES

682 rugby referees from Wales, Scotland, and England rated their stress associated with refereeing on a 3-item scale. Mean ratings for the total sample and each group were between “very little” and “a moderate amount.” Results support earlier studies, suggesting that most sport officials do not experience much stress while officiating.