Athletes' expectations with regard to officiating competence

Area of Science:

• Sports Psychology
• Sociology of Sport

Background:

• Understanding athlete perceptions of sports officials is crucial for fair play and positive athlete-official relationships.
• Previous research has not comprehensively identified the specific cues athletes use to evaluate officiating competence across different sport types.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the key cues athletes use to form expectations about sports officials' competence.
• To investigate how the priority of these cues differs across team, racquet, and fighting sports.

Main Methods:

• Development and administration of the Athlete Perception of Sports Officials Questionnaire (APSO-Q) to 472 athletes.
• Utilized exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to analyze the influence of 32 potential cues on athlete perceptions.
• Categorized cues into four factors: static, psychological, communicational, and performance.

Main Results:

• Athletes predominantly rely on psychological and personal communication cues when assessing officiating competence.
• Team sport athletes rated static cues as more influential in their expectations compared to racquet and fighting sport athletes.
• A four-factor model (static, psychological, communicational, performance cues) emerged from the analysis.

Conclusions:

• Athlete evaluations of sports officials are significantly influenced by psychological and communication attributes.
• Sport type moderates the importance of static cues in athlete expectations, with team sports showing higher reliance.
• Findings offer insights for enhancing athlete-official interactions and informing the training of sports officials.