The Relationship between Job Burnout and Sources of Stress and Coping Strategies in Referees of Iran Football Premier League

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between job burnout and sources of stress and coping strategies in the referees of Iran premier league. 103 referees were selected as the sample. Sources of Stress Inventory (Voight, 2009), MBI (Maslach & Jackson, 1996) and WCQ (Billings & Moos, 1981) were used to collect data. Results showed a significant relationship between confrontation, interpersonal conflict and role conflict and job burnout. Interpersonal conflict and role conflict predicted job burnout. Problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping strategies were negatively and significantly correlated with job burnout. These two strategies predicted job burnout. It can be concluded that stress is directly related to job burnout in referees of football premier league and job burnout highly reduces referee's performance. It is recommended that football federation authorities should consider sources of stress and coping strategies to reduce referee's burnout and finally to improve their performance.