The relationship between psychological resilience, decision confidence, and officiating pressure of college basketball referees: a cross-lagged study

Objectives: To address the limitations of prior cross-sectional studies, this study employed a longitudinal follow-up design to investigate the reciprocal longitudinal relationships among psychological resilience, decision confidence, and officiating pressure. Methods: Over a 6-month period, 368 college basketball referees were surveyed three times using the Officiating and Decision Stress Scale for Referees (SASS-SO), the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), and the Referee Self-Efficacy Scale (REFS). Longitudinal measurement invariance was assessed using Amos 29.0, and a cross-lagged panel model was employed to examine the relationships among the three variables. Results: /df = 1.257, CFI = 0.949, TLI = 0.983, RMSEA = 0.026). Psychological resilience was positively associated with subsequent decision confidence and negatively associated with subsequent officiating pressure over time. Decision confidence was negatively associated with subsequent officiating pressure but was not significantly associated with subsequent psychological resilience. Officiating pressure was negatively associated with subsequent psychological resilience and with decision confidence. Conclusion: Psychological resilience was positively associated with subsequent decision confidence and negatively associated with subsequent officiating pressure over time. Decision confidence was negatively associated with subsequent officiating pressure. Officiating pressure was negatively associated with subsequent psychological resilience and with decision confidence. Decision confidence also mediated the indirect longitudinal relationship between psychological resilience and officiating pressure. These findings should be interpreted as predictive rather than causal, given the limitations of the traditional CLPM.