The effect of state anxiety levels of Turkish body building and fitness referees on their decision-making skills

This study aimed to investigate the effect of state anxiety levels during a competition on the decision-making skills of bodybuilding and fitness referees actively working in Turkey. Ninety-eight (74 male and 24 female) bodybuilding and fitness referees registered with the Turkish Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation participated in the research by total population sampling method. "Personal Information Form" created by the researcher, "Anxiety Assessment Scale" and "Melbourne Decision Making I-II Scale" were applied to the participants. SPSS 25 package program was preferred in the analysis of the data obtained. In the analysis of non-normally distributed data, in addition to descriptive statistics, the Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparisons of two groups, and the Kruskal Wallis test was used for comparisons of more than two groups. Spearman correlation test was applied to determine the relationship between variables. According to the findings; It was observed that there was no statistically significant difference in terms of state anxiety and decision-making skills in the referees' educational status, refereeing time, classification, and competition history (𝑝>0.05). A statistically significant difference was detected in careful decision-making in terms of gender variable (𝑝<0.05). A positive linear weak relationship between avoidant decision-making and procrastinating decision-making, panic decision-making and state anxiety, a moderate linear positive relationship between procrastinating decision-making and panic decision-making, and a positive linear weak relationship between panic decision-making and state anxiety levels. the relationship was detected (p<0.01). In conclusion; It was determined that male referees make more careful decisions and, in general, all referees make avoidant and procrastinating decisions because they are anxious in times of panic.