Psychological factors and future performance of football players:A systematic review with meta-analysis

Objectives: This systematic review had 3 key objectives: (1) to investigate whether psychological factors were associated with future football performance ( e.g., progression to professional football, better game statistics during the next season); (2) to critically review the methodological approaches used in the included studies and summarize the evidence for the current research question; (3) to provide guidelines for future studies. Design: Systematic ReviewMethods: Electronic databases (SPORTDiscus, PubMed and PsycINFO) and previously published systematic and scoping reviews were searched. Only prospective studies were considered for inclusion. Results: Eleven published studies that reported 39 effect sizes were included. Psychological factors; task orientation, task-oriented coping strategies and perceptual-cognitive functions had small effects on future performance in football (ds = 0.20-0.29). Due to high risk of bias there were low certainty of evidence for psychological factors relationship with future football performance. Conclusions: Psychological factors investigated showed small effects on future football performance, however, there was overall uncertainty in this evidence due to various sources of bias in the included studies. Therefore psychological factors cannot be used as a sole deciding factor in player recruitment, retention, release strategies, however it would appear appropriate to include these in the overall decision-making process. Future, studies with more appropriate and robust research designs are urgently needed to provide more certainty around their actual role

Female soccer referees : A qualitative studyregarding motivation, perceived stress and coping

Syftet med studien var att undersöka vad som motiverar kvinnliga fotbollsdomare till fortsattdömning, vilka situationer som resulterar i stress samt hur de upplever att de hanterar dessasituationer. För att undersöka syftet användes frågeställningarna: Vilka är de huvudsakligamotivationsfaktorerna till att kvinnliga fotbollsdomare fortsätter att döma? Vilka situationerupplever de som stressfulla? Hur hanterar kvinnliga fotbollsdomare stressfulla situationer?Totalt deltog tio kvinnor från södra och västra Sverige som alla har dömt fotboll i minst tresäsonger, medelåldern var 21,1 år (SD= 3,62) och domarna dömde från distrikt till elitnivå.En semi-strukturerad intervjuguide med tre fastställda teman (motivation, stress och coping)användes. Resultatet visade på att domarna besitter en hög inre motivation då de tycker attdömningen är rolig. Yttre motivation i form utav bekräftelse och pengar var även viktiga. Ettantal situationer kan upplevas som stressfulla, bland annat var olika matchsituationeråterkommande faktorer. För att hantera stressfulla situationer används emotions- ochproblemfokuserad coping. Socialt stöd och personliga egenskaper (exempelvis lugn) varockså att föredra. Resultatet tolkades utifrån två teoretiska ramverk (Självbestämmande teorinoch Transaktionsmodellen om stress och coping). Studiens huvudsakliga fynd indikerade attfotbollsdomarna upplever att dömningen är rolig och att stressfulla situationer somförekommer kan hanteras.The purpose of the study was to examine what motivates female soccer referees to continuerefereeing, which situations result in stress and how they perceive that they handle thesesituations. The following research questions were used: What are the main motivationalfactors for female soccer referees to continue refereeing? Which situations are experienced asstressful? How do female soccer referees handle stressful situations? A total of ten femalereferees from Southern and Western Sweden participated, all of them active soccer refereesfor at least three seasons. The average age was 21.1 years (SD = 3.62) and they were ondistrict-, regional- or elite level. A semi-structured interview guide with three pre-identifiedthemes (motivation, stress and coping) were used. The result showed that referees possess ahigh internal motivation when they feel refereeing is fun. External motivation such asconfirmation and money was also important. Several situations could be perceived asstressful, game situations were recurrent incidents. Emotion- and problem focused coping wasused to handle stressful situations. Social support and personal characteristics (e.g. calmness)was also appreciated. The result was interpreted using two theoretical frameworks (Selfdeterminationtheory and Transactional model of stress and coping). The conclusion from thestudy is that soccer referees consider refereeing fun and that they can handle the stressfulsituations that occur