"Burnout" syndrome in soccer referees

Abstract

The action context of the football referee is associated to several conditions that can induce work stress, such as the need to maintain emotional control in the face of the lack of emotional control of coaches and athletes and little professional recognition. This overload scenario can expose these professionals to burnout syndrome. The purpose of this study was to compare the perception of the syndrome related to the variables: educational level, performance level, function in the field, State federation and arbitration time. Seventy-two football referees from two Brazilian states participated in the study. The "Burnout Inventory for Referees" was used. It is composed of nine items that contemplate the three dimensions of the syndrome, and a sociodemographic questionnaire was also employed. Descriptive statistics and the Mann Whitney U test were used for the data analysis (p ≤ 0.05). The only variable that showed an effect on the perception of burnout syndrome was the State of affiliation. Referees affiliated to the Federation of Amapá presented greater perception of two dimensions of burnout in relation to referees affiliated to the Federation of Pará: reduced sense of sports accomplishment and sports depreciation. The study points out the relevance of contextual and organizational factors in the perception of burnout in soccer referees.