The relationship between emotional intelligence, communication skills and stress among Iranian premier league referees

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1 Available online at Annals of Biological Research, 2013, 4 (4): ( ISSN CODEN (USA): ABRNBW The relationship between emotional intelligence, communication skills and stress among Iranian premier league referees Reza Nikbakhsh 1, Shahram Alam 2 and Maryam Monazami 2 1 Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Islamic Azad University South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran 2 Department of physical education, Shahr-e-Ray Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran ABSTRACT The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence, communication skills and stress in Iranian soccer super league referees. The method of the study is descriptive and correlation and the data were collected via questionnaires using field study procedure. The population of the study consisted of all 73 soccer super league referees in the season. The sample size was equated with the population. From among the 73 questionnaires distributed to the referees, a number of 67 questionnaires (91.78%) were regarded as valid and analyzable. Emotional intelligence scale developed based on the model of emotional intelligence, Communication Skills Questionnaire, Referees Stress Questionnaire. Both descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics including Pearson correlation formula and regression analysis (both enter and stepwise methods) were used to analyze the data (p<0.05). The results showed that Iranian soccer super league referees had above average emotional intelligence and communication skills and had low levels of stress. The referee's stresses were mostly related to wrong decisions, physical aggression and lack of physical fitness. In contrast, the referees reported less stress when supervisor and media attendance in the games. The results also indicated that the relationship between emotional intelligence and referees stress were not significant while there was significant positive correlation between emotional intelligence and communication skills in the referees. Emotions exploitation was the best predictor of communication skills in the referees. It is recommended that EI training programs be designed for the referees in order to increase communication skills in them. Programs indicated that made referees sensitive toward their emotions and raise awareness toward their emotional dimension. The emotional skills they have learned can help them to conflict resolution and coping with mental pressures and facilitate their communication with others. As a result, their interpersonal and performance will be develop. Keywords: Emotional intelligence, Communication skills, Refereeing stress, Soccer INTRODUCTION Apart from managerial structure soccer comprises important components such as players, coaches, spectators and referees that now the issues related to refereeing have assumed a scientific guise and require training and experience. A referee in the pitch is not only responsible for judging team, but also his decisions significantly affect the behavior and reactions of players, coaches, spectators, officials and clubs [17]. 196

2 Referees are among the most influential members in holding sports competitions, whose endeavor, expertise and perseverance have contributed a lot to all types of sports. Following coaches and players, referees constitute the third pillar of sports competitions and undertake one of the most critical responsibilities in sports. Refereeing is an exciting and stressful job. Research has shown that referees may encounter potential stressful scenes including spectator pressures, individual factors, and situational experiences like players or spectators' aggression during a match, which may affect their decisions [20]. Referees are often subject to reproaches and vulnerable to many stresses such as maltreatment, spectator affronts, and lack of appropriate financial support by the officials [3]. Since there is positive relationship between referees' job stresses and their health conditions and mental disorders [1], the referees who suffer from stress and burnout are emotionally exhausted, bear low morals and have inadequate mental health [22]. Considering the fact that referees, particularly soccer referees, should continuously deal with media critiques, nervous coaches, aggressive spectators, discontent players and breathtaking pressures of a right or wrong decision, they may become vulnerable to anxiety, stress and burnout unless they can efficiently cope with these pressures. Communication is a two way street. If a communication path has been kept open, the referee's communication with coaches, athletes, spectators, assistants and media would be more useful and enjoyable. Effective communication must be continue after the game and referees could obtain important information through making communication between themselves and assistants and media and they could offer it to others. Merely knowing the lows, rules, refereeing mechanic and positioning is not sufficient to reduce stress. If the referee has too much stress and anxiety, and lose his calmness these skills will be impaired. In addition to these characteristics, a referee has need mental skills to preventing stress reactions and adjusted them in difficult situations. If the referees have been equipped with these mental skills, certainly there will be stress and anxiety again, however by applying these skills referee will be learn to adjusted these psychological pressure and stress effectively and lead them to correct ways. Studies has shown that emotional intelligence has significant affect on social adjustment and stress [30] so that training emotional intelligence were effective on social adjustment and developing communicational skills [19]. Emotional Intelligence (EI) involves the ability to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions to enhance thought [24] and bearing such properties as the ability to excite oneself, the ability to resist failures, maintaining one's morals, repressing depression during thinking, empathy, intimacy and optimism [16], not only helps control emotional responses, but it also facilitate the appropriate exploitation of emotions in various situations and can predict reductions in burnout. Indeed, by adequate processing of the events which bear emotional load, EI empower the individual to sensibly deal with the events, apply continence and control immediate demands. It, therefore, may be contended that, considering its significant role in emotional control (appropriate emotional management and individual's adaptability to the environment); EI may help reduce burnout and enhance emotional control in athletes [24]. Generally speaking, the influential effect of emotions on athletic performance has drawn the attention of many researchers who have tried to find procedures to control and regulate emotions [20]. Research has shown a positive relationship between EI and a variety of other constructs including athletic performance [20], mental and physical health [25], optimal performance [20] and self-efficacy [34] and negative relationship with burnout [8, 18,]. However, EI has not yet been investigated in referees, particularly soccer referees. This study is to answer the question whether or not there is a significant correlation between EI and communication skills with stress on Iranian soccer premier league referees. This study assumes that increased EI may develop communication skills and reduce stress in the soccer premier league referees. Therefore, the main hypothesis of this study is that increased EI in Iranian soccer premier league referees may positive correlates with communication skills and negative correlates with their stress. This study investigate the relationship between EI components including emotions expression, emotions regulation and emotions exploitation and communication skills factors including verbal skills, listening skills and feedback skills and also stress in Iranian soccer premier league referees. MATERIALS AND METHODS The method of the study is descriptive and correlation study. The data was collected using questionnaires and through field study procedure. The population of the study consisted of all 73 soccer premier league referees in the season in Iran. From among the 73 questionnaires distributed to the referees, a number of 67 questionnaires (91.78%) were regarded as valid and analyzable. Emotional intelligence scale developed based on the model of emotional intelligence [24], Communication Skills Questionnaire [4], Referees Stress Questionnaire [24] were used. Moreover, in order to define the reliability of the questionnaire, the two methods of Cronbach's Alpha and split-halves were used, which showed the values of (0.88 and 0.77) for Emotional intelligence scale and (0.74 and 0.75) for Communication Skills Questionnaire and (0.78 and 0.90) for Referees Stress Questionnaire. 197

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table, 1. Descriptive characteristics of soccer super league referees Variables Mean S.D. Min Max Age Height Weight Table, 2. Demographic information of soccer super league referees Characteristics Percentage Material status Married Single Diploma Academic degree BA/BSc MA/MSc Field of study Physical Education Other Tehran Living in Other cities Occupation Self-employed Office Worker Total Table, 3. Professional characteristic of soccer premier league referees Characteristics Frequency Percentage Referee Type of refereeing Assistant National Refereeing qualifications International Less than Number of refereeing Between In the season More than Less than 10 years Refereeing history Between 11 and 15 years Between 16 and 20 years More than 21 years to 4 years Refereeing history in 5 to 9 years The premier league More than 10 years Total The results showed that Iranian soccer premier league referees had above average EI (Table 4) and communication skills (Table 5). Iranian soccer premier league referees stress were below average and the referees stress were mostly related to wrong decisions (5.63), physical aggression (5.54) and lack of physical fitness (5.07). In contrast, when supervisor and media attendance in the games, the referees reported less stress. Other results indicate that the relationship between EI and referees stress were not significant (r =0.52, P = 0.08; Table 7). The results also revealed a significant positive correlation between EI and communication skills in the referees (r =0.56, P = ; Table 8). Emotions exploitation were the best predictor of communication skills in the referees and other variable do not play important role. 198

4 Table, 4. Statistical indices of EI and its component in soccer premier league referees Statistics variables Mean S.D. Min Max No Overall EI Emotional assessment and expression Emotional regulation Emotional exploitation Table, 5. Statistical indices of communication skills and its component in soccer premier league referees Statistics variables Mean S.D. Min Max No Overall communication skills Feedback skill Listening skills Verbal skills Table, 6. Mean, Standard Deviation, Minimum and Maximum of stress and its components in referees Statistics variables Mean S.D. Min Max No Overall stress Coaches pressures Players pressures Spectator pressures Physical aggression Injuries from spectators Lack of fair play Fear of failure in refereeing Fear of injury Lack of physical fitness Wrong decisions Supervisor attendance Media attendance Table, 7. Simple correlation coefficient between stress and EI and their subscales Variables stress Correlation P Overall EI Emotional assessment and expression Emotional regulation Emotional exploitation The present findings revealed that EI mean score (M = 123) and its components, including emotional assessment and expression, emotional regulation and exploitation, were above average (Average = 99) in the soccer super league referees. In other words, this finding indicates that Iranian soccer premier league referees have a good level of EI. The literature lacked a previous study in line with the present one to compare the results; however, since referees are among the most influential members in holding sports competitions [3]. The present findings are consistent with the findings of Lane et al. (2010), Vassiliki et al. (2009), Saklofske et al. (2007), Perlini et al. (2006), Tsaousis et al. (2005), Aries et al. (2004), Ciarrochie et al. (2001), and Zizzi et al. (2003), as cited in Brinberg et al. (2007) who reported that athletes have higher EI comparing with non-athletes. This finding may be accounted for based on some present possibilities as follows: 199

5 Table, 8. Simple correlation coefficient between communication skills and EI C criterion variable Statistical index R P N Predicting variables Overall EI Emotional assessment Overall communication and expression skills Emotional regulation Emotional exploitation Feedback skill Verbal skill Listening skill Overall EI Emotional assessment and expression Emotional regulation Emotional exploitation Overall EI Emotional assessment and expression Emotional regulation Emotional exploitation Overall EI Emotional assessment and expression Emotional regulation Emotional exploitation ) Considering the fact that EI can be acquired through experience and training [16] and usually peaks at the age of 40 [4] and requires training, patience and lapse of time [19] and regarding the fact that no EI training program has yet been developed for Iranian referees, some characteristics of the research population including referees' age (Table 6), qualifications (national: 47%, and international; 20%; Table 7), refereeing history in national competitions (more than 10 years: 51%, Table 7) and in super league (more than 5 years: 64%, Table 7) may have empowered the them to achieve a considerable level of EI through experience and trial and error. Table, 9. Multiple regression coefficient between EI components and burnout using both enter and stepwise methods Predicting MR RS F Sig variables A Overall communication skill Emotional β=0.387 assessment and expression t=3.386 β Coefficients p=0.001 Emotional β=0.252 β=0.319 regulation t=2.091 t=2.642 P=0.041 P=0.010 Emotional β=0.111 β=0.047 β=0.506 exploitation t=0.943 t=0.350 t=3.578 p=0.349 p=0.728 p= B Communication skill Emotional β=0.593 exploitation t=5.937 p= ) Goleman (1998) contend that, in addition to technical abilities, high performance requires some particular abilities including precise control of one's emotions, appropriate reaction, persuasion, group work, ability to negotiate, transparent communication, mediation and the ability to communicate. This is because these characteristics help the individual become vigilant, calm, respectful, observant, attentive, responsive, illustrative and receptive in dealing with people and situations [16]. In this regard, it seems that the social skills of soccer super league referees have developed consistent with their technical and professional skills and as a result of extensive 200

6 communication with coaches, players, colleagues, managers and media over the course of time, which has resulted in their increased EI. 3) EI refers to a hierarchy of non-cognitive skills which influence individual abilities so that the individual may overcome environmental pressures [4]. Since refereeing is a stressful job and referee decisions can influence the behavior of all players, coaches, spectators, officials and clubs [17], referees may incrementally learn that emotional assessment, expression, regulation and exploitation help them effectively deal with media critiques, nervous coaches, aggressive spectators, discontent players and breathtaking pressures of a right or wrong decision, and consequently, they may increase their EI through practice and emotional control. 4) EI is one of the best predictors of living a successful life such that 85-90% of perfect performance has been attributed to it [7]. Accordingly, referees who judge super league and international games have attained the highest levels of career success, which may indicate that, in addition to technical abilities, they have also attained high levels of EI. Other results of this study indicated that the mean score of stress (52.96) were below average (Average= 72) in Iranian soccer premier league referees. This is consistent with three previous studies on stress in Iranian soccer referees [25]. Investigate burnout and its correlation with stress in the Iranian soccer premier league referees. They found that the stress in Iranian international referees is average while these rates in national referees were more than average. Accordingly, investigated stressors, burnout and desire for retirement in 86 Iranian professional referees, and investigate the relationship between burnout, stress and well being in referees, they reported that Iranian referee stress was moderate to low that confirm the result of this study. Although this result is consistent with the findings of previous research, suggest that the stress levels of soccer premier League referees are relatively desirable, while other result of this study indicated that the referees stress were mostly related to wrong decisions, physical aggression and lack of physical fitness. Considering that the stresses of wrong decisions are related to technical performance, therefore, it is most important factor in referees stress. Since most of the previous researches in various fields of sport reported technical performance as a important factor in referees stress [19, 28, 32], it seems that obsessed on technical performance and concerns over wrong and challenging decisions and its consequences causes a lot of stress in referees, especially on soccer refereeing that is stressful. From Iranian soccer premier League referees perspective, physical aggression and its injuries is the second factor of stress. This is consistent with results of [12, 15]. Also, the referees introduced lack of fitness as the third factor of stress. This is consistent with results of Da Silva et al. (2007) and Mason et al. (2000) which revealed physical fitness has influential effect on referee's performance. Given the potential impact of stress on referees performance and efficiency and referees affects on quality and quantity of the soccer competitions, it is necessary to Football Federation officials especially Referees Committee further consider this issues and design and develop training courses to stress management and coping with stressful conditions through employ fitness instructors for national and international referees. Other results indicate that the relationship between EI and referees stress were not significant that it was consistent with investigations on adolescent population [14], office employee population, manager population, student population [5] and other population [10, 13]. Although the findings of this study showed that the mean score of EI were above average and mean score of stress were below average in Iranian soccer super league referees, but were not significant correlation between them. Since the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and the stress has not been studied in the referees population and there is not any finding to comparison, it seems that conclusions about this relationship was not certain and it needs to further researches on the same populations. Other result of this study showed that communication skills and its components (feedback skill, listening skill, verbal skill) mean score (58.07) in Iranian soccer premier league referees was above average (average=45). Although, to compare the results there is not similar researches, but due to constant interaction between referees and players, coaches, assistants, managers and media, holding training courses and workshops to develop verbal skills, listening skills, feedback skills is necessary. The results also demonstrated a significant positive correlation between EI and communication skills in Iranian soccer premier league referees. This is consistent with Lopes et al. (2004), Brackett et al. (2004), Salovey et al. (2007), Ciarrochie (2002), Mayer (2008), and Goleman (1998), which revealed significant positive correlation between EI and communication skills and social adjustment. A review on the literature shows that there is consensus among the researchers on the significant positive correlation between EI and communication skills and it support the results of this study. Since it is revealed that Iranian soccer premier league referees have higher EI and because EI is a means to self controlling and it helps to proper behaviors and responses [27]. Individuals with higher levels of EI better understand messages in their interpersonal relationships and have high ability of listening and more control to their communication process, show assertive behavior in their relationships and they have high 201

7 ability of emotional regulation. It seems that through exploitation of high EI Iranian soccer premier league referees could develop their communication and adjusting skills. In this regard, other results of this study revealed that emotional exploitation is the best predictor of communication skills in Iranian soccer premier league referees. Since emotional intelligence is use of emotional information in mind and practice and problem solving [24], communication skill is the ability to deliver and sending information in order to make changes in knowledge, attitudes or behaviors. This could involve emotional and feelings information. It seems that Iranian soccer premier league referees through exploitation of their and others emotions such athletes, coaches, spectators, assistants and supervisors developed their abilities to deliver and sending information and increased communication skills. Despite the general intelligence which is confirmed in early life, EI may develop during the life via training and endeavor and acquisition of new skills. CONCLUSION Therefore, it is recommended that EI training programs be designed for the referees in order to increase communication skills in them. It is notable to mention that EI training does not mean giving advice to the referees; rather it means that they need to be made sensitive toward their emotions and raise awareness toward their emotional dimension. The emotional skills they have learned can help them to conflict resolution and coping with mental pressures and facilitate their communication with others. REFERENCES [1] Andy, L www. FIFA.com/article/refereeing. [2] Aries, E., Danielle, M., Peter, S Res in Higher Education, Vol. 45, No. 6 [3] Baldwin, C Paper presented at Australian Catholic University, Australia. [4] Barton, R Emotional intelligence and self-actualization. NY: Psychology Press. [5] Boussiakou, L., Boussiakou, Z., Kalkani, E Word Trans Techno Edu; 79(1): [6] Brackett, M., Mayer, J Personality and Individual Differences, 36, [7] Brinberg, D., Nakamoto, K., Maching, J Emotional in sport. Blacksburg VA. [8] Chan, D Teaching and Teacher Education, 22: [9] Ciarrochie, J., Deane, F Br J Guidance and Counseling, 29, [10] Ciarrochie, V., Joseph, D J Personality and Individual diff. 26, [11] Da Silva, A., Fernandz, R Br. J Sports Med., 37: [12] Dohmen, D IZA Discussion Paper no [13] Derksen, J., Kramer, I., Katzko, M Peers Individual Dif; 32, 37, 48. [14] Extremera, N., Duran, A., Rey, L Peers Individual Dif ;42: [15] Folkesson, P., Nyberg, C., Archer, T Aggressive behavior, 28(4): [16] Goleman, D Working with emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books. [17] Hampton, M The bigger picture, Capital referee London, FA. [18] Jasha, F., Marvin, S Emotional intelligence for Athletes Life success, (1) [19]Freedman, J., Smith, M EI for athletes' life success. Six Seconds. [20] Lane, A., Devonport, T. J., Soos, I., Karsai, I J Sports Sci Med, 9: [21] Lopes, P., Brackett, M., Nezlek, J Personality and Individual Diff, 35, [22] Marco, J J Sport Sciences, 23 (4): [23] Mason, C., Lovell, G Football Studies, 3 (2): [24] Mayer, J., Roberts, R., Barsade, S Annul Rev Psychology, 59: [25] Mohammady far, M., Khan, M J Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 35(2): [26] Perlini, H., Halverson, R In J Organizational Behavior, 38 (2): [27] Pankratova, A Psychology, Issue 2, P [28] Rainey, D., Hardy, L J Sport Behavior, 22(4), [29] Saklofske, D., Austin, E., Rohr, B J Health Psychology, 12 (6): [30] Salovey, P., Mayer, J., Caruso, D Handbook of positive psychology, , Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. [31] Tsaousis, I., Nikolaou, I Stress and Health, 21: [32] Tsorbatzoudis, H., Kaissidis R Perceptual and motor skills, 100: [33] Vassiliki, C., Dimitra, S J exercise Science & Fitness, 7: [34] Verissimo, R Acta Médica Portuguesa, 18(5):

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