The role of coping strategies and psychological inflexibility in the mental health of soccer referees

Objective: This study investigated whether psychological inflexibility and coping are related to psychopathological symptomatology in soccer referees.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 156 active referees (96.8% men), with 63.5% in amateur categories and 36.5% in semi-professional or professional categories. Psychopathological symptoms were assessed using the Symptom Assessment-45 Questionnaire, psychological inflexibility with the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II, and coping strategies with the Coping Inventory for Competitive Sport.

Results: No significant differences were observed between amateur and semi-professional/professional referees in terms of mental health, coping strategies, or psychological inflexibility. High psychological inflexibility scores were associated with emotion-oriented coping (p < .001) but not with distraction (p = .110), or task-oriented coping (p = .744). Increased psychological inflexibility correlated with higher scores on psychopathological symptoms (p < .001). In regression models, task-oriented and distraction-oriented coping did not significantly contribute to the outcomes. Rather, psychological inflexibility (p < .001) and emotion-oriented coping (p = .001) were the strongest predictors of psychopathological symptoms.

Conclusions: The study confirmed that psychological inflexibility is significantly related to mental health and with the choice of coping strategies, mainly emotion-oriented coping and distraction-oriented coping.