Anxiety level among Iranian football referees: The role of self-consciousness and coping styles

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the level of anxiety experienced by Iranian football referees, and to predict the level of referees’ competitive anxiety according to their self-consciousness and coping styles. One hundred thirteen male football referees voluntarily completed a demographic questionnaire, Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS; Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975), and referring-modified versions of the Sports Competitive Anxiety Test (SCAT; Martens, Vealey, & Burton, 1990) and the Coping Style Inventory for Athletes (CSIA; Anshel & Kaissidis, 1997). Results indicated that the referees tolerated low levels of anxiety in a contest (14.19 ± 3.54). It has revealed that in the face of a stressful event, strategies of avoidance rather than approach are usually used by the referees. The results showed that avoidance coping style and private, public, and social self-consciousness are significantly correlated with the referees’ competitive anxiety. Stepwise regression analysis showed that the best predictors of referees’ anxiety were private self-consciousness and avoidance coping style that together accounted for 25% of the explained variance. Results indicate that the competitive anxiety of referees may affect by their self-conscious and coping styles in competitive settings.