Stress, Fear of Failure and Fitness as Determinants of Decision Making among Nigerian Top Class Soccer Referees

The two hypotheses were tested in this study: Stress, fear of failure and fitness will not relatively be significant determinants of decision making among Nigerian top class soccer referees; Stress, fear of failure and fitness will not compositely be significant determinants of decision making among Nigerian top class soccer referees. This study examined stress, fear of failure and fitness as determinants of decision making among Nigerian top class soccer referees. Multistage (Purposive, stratified, proportional and convenient) sampling techniques were used in selecting 101 respondents. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study while Four Instruments were used. They were Stress Scale (SS), Fear of failure Scale (FFS) and Fitness Scale (FS) and Decision Making Scale (DMS) with the following reliability values 0.71, 0.80, 0.69 and 0.77 through Cronbach’s alpha respectively. The inferential statistics of multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses. The two null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance were rejected which implied that Stress, fear of failure and fitness had relative and composite significance contribution for decision making among Nigerian top class soccer referees. It was however recommended that there is need to develop strategies to effectively cope with stressful situations for referees. Referees should be assisted in their ability to cope with these stressors which could be through any number of stress management techniques. Periodic workshops and seminars should be organized for all graded referees irrespective of their status on psychological traits that would enhance their performance.