Preparing and applying a state anxiety scale for first-class handball referees in Najaf Governorate

Abstract

Referees are exposed to psychological pressures and emotions that can limit their mental and physical response speed. Psychological anxiety is one of the most prominent of these emotions, which can significantly impact refereeing performance. This anxiety can appear during or before a match for a variety of reasons, including crowd pressure, player objections, coaching positions, the nature of the competition, and match conditions. Accordingly, there is a need to identify the most prominent psychological obstacles facing referees, and to work on preparing them physically, educationally and psychologically in a way that reduces the impact of these obstacles, and ensures their ability to issue sound decisions, which contributes to maintaining the cleanliness of the game and enhancing the spirit of fair competition between teams. Based on this, the importance of this study is determined by its attempt to reveal the relationship between state anxiety and the level of performance of handball referees, and to identify the most important points that can contribute to raising the level of refereeing, which serves the development of the game at the local and national levels. Despite the great importance of the role of referees in developing the game and the success of competitions, the local arena lacks specialized local scientific standards to measure state anxiety among handball referees in Najaf Governorate. Hence, the need arose to prepare a scale that is characterized by honesty, stability and objectivity, which contributes to diagnosing the level of state anxiety among referees, and identifying its dimensions, with the aim of helping them overcome psychological pressures and improving the level of refereeing performance. To identify the levels of state anxiety among referees and the extent of their variation, the researcher adopted the descriptive approach with the survey method, as it is the most appropriate for the nature of the current study, as this approach aims to collect data from individuals in the study community, and analyze it, in order to diagnose the current state of this community in light of the variables under study. The study community consisted of all first-class handball referees in the Najaf Governorate, numbering (13) referees. The study sample was deliberately selected from the original community, where the number of its members reached (10) referees, i.e. (75%). The level of general anxiety among first-class handball referees is average, which reflects the referees’ exposure to moderate psychological pressures during matches, affected by psychological factors related to refereeing preparation and stadium conditions, and highlights the need to develop psychological support programs to enhance refereeing performance. Developing psychological preparation programs for referees: It is recommended to implement specialized training programs in controlling anxiety and managing psychological pressures, which enhances facilitating anxiety and reduces the impact of hindering anxiety on referees’ performance during matches.