Abstract
Sports officials encounter stressors that potentially lead to negative health outcomes such as alcohol abuse, eating disorders, and anxiety. Gouttebarge et al. (2017) found that only 20% of professional referees reported they would seek help for mental health symptoms. Consequently, officials have reported reductions in performance, ability to cope with stress, and motivation to remain in officiating (Webb et al., 2020), likely contributing to negative mental health and high attrition. The current study examined the levels of psychological distress (i.e., Kessler K10 (Kessler et al., 2002)) in 229 officials (74.7% male, 90.4% white) from nine sports and across levels of experience ranging from recreational to international. A 3 (age category) x 3 (experience category) x 3 (level of competition) x 2 (gender) factorial ANOVA revealed significant two-way interactions between gender and age group (F (2, 170) = 3.46, p < .05, pη;2 = .04), and level of competition and level of experience (F (24, 170) = 2.72, p < .05, pη;2 = .06). Post-hoc analyses showed that females in both the young and old groups had significantly more psychological distress than their male counterparts and the least experienced group had significantly more distress than the most experienced group at the club/varsity/provincial level, and the national/international level. These results are consistent with previous research on stress and mental health in sports officials, particularly regarding gender, but the nature of the interactions suggests that the determinants of mental health in this population may be more nuanced than previously supposed.
