Understanding barriers & facilitators to

mental health in football referees

Principles, Practice and Governance in Sports Management

Robyn Bate
robyn.bate@port.ac.uk
Introduction
Today we will cover:

• My research interests
• Challenges with qualitative methods
• Implications & recommendations for future research
What is Mental Health?

“a state of well-being where individuals recognize their own abilities, cope

with daily stressors of life, work productively, and are able to make
contributions to their communities”

~ World Health Organization (2018)

MH Research in Sport
• Increased attention & funding in the sport sector
• Less stigma, high profile ambassadors

Focus on the MH of athletes:

➔ Lack of MH literacy (Coyle et al., 2017)
➔ Incidence & prevalence
➔ Risk of developing mental illnesses (Gouttebarge et al., 2019)
Referees: The Overlooked Problem

• Deficit of research despite facing similar physical and

psychosocial challenges to athletes (Warner et al., 2013)

• Operating in a high pressure environment, rife with

interpersonal conflict
• Lack of adequate support systems heightens vulnerability
to MH disorders
What stressors do referees face?

Password: referee
Implications for Referees (Faragher et al., 2005)

Negative impact on Increased risk of symptoms

Stressors occupational satisfaction of depression & anxiety

Prevalence of symptoms of CMD among pro football referees:

• 12% for anxiety/depression

• 19% for eating disorders
• 17% for adverse alcohol use

(Gouttebarge et al., 2017)

Implications for Sport
MH can lead to:
• Decreased productivity
• Workplace absences
• 80% of new officials quitting after their second year (Stump, 2018)

There is already a rapidly declining retention & recruitment rate.

This shortage of referees threatens the existence of amateur football (Webb et al.,
2021)
Thesis Overview
Studies:
1. Understanding lived experience
2. International comparison
3. Intervention testing

Overarching aim: To inform County FA strategies to support the psychological state of

referees, ultimately improving job satisfaction and, therefore, recruitment and retention
rates.

Underpinned by Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (Smith et al., 2009)

Study One: Data Collection
Aim: To understand barriers & facilitators to Mental Health for UK football referees, from
the perspective of multiple stakeholders

Semi-structured interviews Participant groups

• Group A: Referees registered as an
• Typical of IPA studies (Pietkiewicz & Smith, 2012) active official (Level 5-7) with one of
the CFAs.
• Supports participant-oriented approach • Group B: Personnel directly
• Provides flexibility to seek clarifications employed in the management and
training of referees including RDOs,
& elaborations where necessary Welfare Officers, and Tutors.
• Group C: Coaches
• Group D: Players
• Group E: Spectators
What are some of the challenges
with conducting interviews?
Study One: Data analysis
IPA

1. Interviews are transcribed verbatim

2. Identify initial patterns
3. Clustering patterns together to form themes
4. Repeat stages 1-3 for the next transcript until all are complete
5. Comparing themes across accounts
6. Organisation into final table of higher and lower order themes
Using the quotes provided, you are tasked with
creating a table of themes

● Read through the quotes carefully before you begin

● Begin grouping together quotes that are Themes Verbatim Quotes

about similar topics
● Name each theme according to their shared
topic
● Final stage… how can you increase
credibility??
Task: Design an intervention
In small groups, design an intervention that aims to directly or indirectly improve referee
mental health

Consider the barriers that we have spoken about today

You should consider the following:

● Primary and secondary objectives
● Benchmarking & instruments
● Anticipated risks/ ethical considerations
Conclusion
Referees face numerous barriers that threaten their wellbeing.
To improve the recruitment & retention rate, we must first address MH.

Challenges:
• Reliability of self-reporting
• Relies on a level of MH literacy
• New field of enquiry
References
Cleland, J., O’Gorman, J., & Webb, T. (2017). Respect? An investigation into the experience of referees in association football. The International Review for the Sociology of
Sport. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690216687979

Coyle, M., Gorczynski, P., & Gibson, K. (2017). “You have to be mental to jump off a board any way”: Elite divers’ conceptualizations and perceptions of mental health. Psychology
of Sport & Exercise, 29, 10–18. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2016.11.005

Gorczynski, P., & Webb, T. (2020). Call-to-action: the need for a mental health research agenda for sports match officials. Managing Sport and Leisure.
https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2020.1792803
Gouttebarge, V., Johnson, U., Rochcongar, P., Rosier, P., & Kerkhoffs, G. (2017). Symptoms of common mental disorders among professional football referees: a one-season
prospective study across Europe. The Physician and Sports medicine, 45(1), 11-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913847.2017.1248796

Gouttebarge, V., Castaldelli-Maia, J.M., Gorczynski, P., Hainline, B., Hitchcock, M.E., Kerkhoffs, G., ::: Reardon, C.L. (2019). Occurrence of mental health symptoms and disorders in
current and former elite athletes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 53(11), 700–706. PubMed ID: 31097451 doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2019-
100671

Palinkas L. (2014). Qualitative and mixed methods in mental health services and implementation research. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol, 43(6), 851–61.

Smith, J. A. (2010). Evaluating the contribution of interpretative phenomenological analysis. Health psychology review, 5(1), 9-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2010.510659

Stump, S. (2018). Youth sports referees across the US are quitting because of abusive parents. Today. https://www.today.com/parents/youth-sports-referees-across-us-
arequitting-because-abusive-parents-t126087

Webb, T., Cleland, J., & O’Gorman, J. (2017). The distribution of power through a media campaign: The Respect programme, referees and violence in association football. The
Journal of Global Sport Management, 2(3), 162–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/24704067.2017.1350591

Webb, T., Rayner, M., Cleland, J., & O’Gorman, J. (2021). Referees, match officials and abuse: Research and implications for policy. Routledge.

World Health Organization. (2018). Mental health: Strengthening our response. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mentalhealth-strengthening-our-response