ArticleFrontiers in psychology2025
Perfectionism and fear of failure, according to sporting experience. A referee handball study.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- A cognitive-affective pathway from socially prescribed perfectionism to athlete burnout: the roles of fear of failure and competitive state anxiety in Chinese athletes.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Perfectionism and anxiety sensitivity in soccer referees: the mediating role of distress tolerance.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Introduction: Fear of failure is a motive to avoid failure in evaluative situations based on anticipatory shame upon failure. Perfectionism is a personality disposition characterized by striving for flawlessness and setting exceedingly high standards of performance accompanied by overly critical evaluations of one's behavior. The goal of the study was to describe the effects of previous sports experiences that handball referees had, related to perfectionism and fear of making mistakes. Methods: Data were collected from 120 referees (93 males, 77.5%; 27 females, 22.5%), ranging in age from 14 to 62 years ( Results: Results showed that both perfectionistic tendencies and fear of failure provide interaction effects on fear of failure. Differences in perfectionist tendencies according to gender (women) and in favor of referees who were coaches or handball players before becoming referees. Discussion: Interventions can be developed to help reduce Fear of Failure and Perfectionism.
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