On behalf of the Long Term Officiating Development (LTOD) committee. Your contact information has been provided by the Sports Officials of Canada. The committee has asked us to help them better understand various issues related to sports officiating.
Officials are a vital part of the amateur sport system, yet annual attrition rates are alarmingly high ranging from 30% in ice hockey to 60% in soccer. These losses impose continual reinvestment in activities such as recruitment and training and lead to the loss of officiating expertise. Yet, to date, research on officiating is limited in quantity and focus. The majority of previous studies, for example, examine stress-related psychological factors (e.g., fear of assaults, making incorrect or controversial calls, verbal abuse) that lead to burnout and dropout). However, personal reports from officialsidentify a number of administrative and organizational factors (e.g., urban versus rural location, inadequate pay, travel demands, ineffective or insufficient training/development opportunities) which contribute to the decision to continue or terminate. Moreover, for those who maintain participation and reach the elite-level officiating ranks, organizational factors remain their primary concern. They report feelings of marginalization within the sport system, perceive that sports organizations fail to recognize their role in ensuring the safety and quality of sports, feel excluded or have minimal voice in decision-making, and experience inadequate support for training and development.The primary objective of this study is to understand why individuals choose to be sports officials and why they remain sports officials. The secondary objective includes examining these factors in large-, medium-, and small-sized or rural population centres. All of this information will useful in terms of Long Term Officials Development.
We would like to invite you to participate in this research project in order to help us assess the current officiating climate by exploring these objectives.
If you have any questions about the research study, please contact: Dr. Susan L. Forbes (Lakehead University) - stillwaterconsulting@shaw.ca or call [807-252-6327]The survey can be found at: Understanding Sports Officiating
We would like to invite you to participate in this research project in order to help us assess the current officiating climate by exploring these objectives.
If you have any questions about the research study, please contact: Dr. Susan L. Forbes (Lakehead University) - stillwaterconsulting@shaw.ca or call [807-252-6327]The survey can be found at: Understanding Sports Officiating
The password for the survey is: Officiating (please be sure to capitalize the word).
As a participant in this study, you have the following rights:
- Your involvement in this study is voluntary and you may choose not to answer any question or questions or withdraw at any time without consequence;
- We will not collect any information related to your computer’s IP address;
- All responses will be kept completely confidential and all identity-related information will be kept separate from survey responses thereby minimizing the chance of connecting an individual with any response;
- Only the researchers will have access to your individual survey responses;
- Additionally, all data will be kept in a secure environment for a period of five (5) years from the completion of the study, at which point they will be destroyed;
- An aggregate summary of the study will be made available to you upon request at the end of the project;
- Results from this study may be used for scholarly and/or program purposes, however, no personal information will be disseminated and no identifying information will be used without expressed written permission of the participant;
- Participants under the age of 18 have the same rights as indicated above, however, you must have parental (or guardian approval) to participate in the study;
- This research in carried out in accordance with the Tri-Council Research Ethics procedures for research involving human subjects.
On behalf of the LTOD committee and my colleague, Dr. Lori A. Livingston, I would like to thank you in advance for your consideration of this request.
MINOR OFFICIALS CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
****Please click on the following link for the RC Minor Officials Certification Program document :
