Abstract
This paper presents a conceptual model of referee efficacy, defines the concept, proposes sources of referee specific efficacy information, and suggests consequences of having high or low referee efficacy. Referee efficacy is defined as the extent to which referees believe they have the capacity to perform successfully in their job. Referee efficacy beliefs are hypothesized to be influenced by mastery experiences, referee knowledge/education, support from significant others, physical/mental preparedness, environmental comfort, and perceived anxiety. In turn, referee efficacy beliefs are hypothesized to influence referee performance, referee stress, athlete rule violations, athlete satisfaction, and co-referee satisfaction.
Highlights
Sport referees have a challenging job, due to the many aspects of a game/match that they must take into account, the speed and complexity of the decisions they must make, the repercussions their actions have, the number of people involved in the match, and often the hostile nature of spectators at the sport event
Among the reasons for this, we find the peculiarities of the officiating task itself, the fact that referees are observed by hundreds or thousands of fans in each match/game and that there are many people – athletes, coaches, managers, fans – trying to exert an influence on each of the referee’s decision
We consider our model of refficacy to be a preliminary model that probably contains fewer sources, dimensions, and outcomes of refficacy than may exist
Summary
Sport referees have a challenging job, due to the many aspects of a game/match that they must take into account, the speed and complexity of the decisions they must make, the repercussions their actions have, the number of people involved in the match, and often the hostile nature of spectators at the sport event. Using Bandura’s (1977, 1997) conceptualization of self-efficacy, we propose a model of refficacy that includes referee specific sources of efficacy information as well as the effects or outcomes of refficacy.
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