A tolerated intolerable: A longitudinal examination of youth soccer referee abuse and its impact on health

Although there are many different pathways leading to adaptive and maladaptive endpoints, one particularly significant threat to health is exposure to violence during childhood. In Canada, exposure to violence and poor mental health are among the top 10 current threats to children and youth. The abuse of referees in sports, including youth (>65%), is rampant and yet there is no research on the impact this type of workplace violence has on the health of adolescents. Accordingly, our main objectives are to examine the: (1) short- and long-term impact of exposure to workplace violence on physical and mental health, (2) interaction (moderation) effects of individual (e.g., gender) and contextual (e.g., workplace characteristics, provincial policies) factors on the relation between violence exposure and health, and (3) indirect (mediation) effects or multiple reciprocal processes on physical and mental health in relation to workplace violence in a large cohort of 3,300 youth soccer referees aged 12 to 16 at Time 1, recruited from Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. These adolescents will be assessed over 3 years.