Design and validation of a questionnaire to identify the main barriers and perceived benefits of women's refereeing in football

Abstract

Women have been gradually joining the football industry in recent years, not only as sportswomen, but also in other areas of the sector such as management and refereeing. The aim of this work is to design and validate a tool for evaluating the barriers perceived in female refereeing, both during the training of female referees (in advance) and once they reach this level, as well as the analysis of the results obtained within the national territory. A total of 380 women referees at national and territorial level were consulted by means of a questionnaire developed on an ad hoc basis. After the second order confirmatory factor analysis, three dimensions were established: Perception of Institutional Support, Benefits of Refereeing and Perception of the Social and Family Climate. After the analysis of the results, it can be concluded that a valid and reliable tool has been obtained to determine the main barriers associated with female refereeing.