Investigation of Self-Efficacy Levels of Football Referees

In this study, we aimed to examine the self-efficacy levels of soccer referees in the context of some demographic variables (gender, education level, age of starting refereeing, and ocupation). The study group consisted of a total of 154 soccer referees during the 2017-2018 football season of whom 33 (21.4%) were females and 121 (78.6%) were males from different regions and classifications ( age = 26.87±1.966). The personal information form and the Referee Self-Efficacy Scale (REFS) were used as data collection tools. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics were used to identify self-efficacy levels and to identify demographic variables. In order to compare self-efficacy levels in respect to arithmetic means gender and age self efficacy scores, independent t-test was used and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare self-efficacy levels of education level and occupations. The Tukey’s multiple comparison test was used to determine differences between groups. The results revealed that the referees' self-efficacy levels were high and there were significant differences in self-efficacy levels in terms of gender and educational status. Thus, it is recommended that higher education level be prioritized during the referee selection and promotion and that experience and physical competence be increased to elevate the self-efficacy levels of female referees