Rational and irrational fan beliefs and psychological distress in football fans: The moderating role of gender, marital status, and match outcome.

Sport fans can experience a variety of dysfunctional emotions and maladaptive behaviors, including anger, hatred, depression, anxiety, and violence. For many years, rational emotive behavioural therapy (REBT) has used the concepts of rational and irrational beliefs to explain the emotions and behaviours exhibited by different groups, such as athletes, students and employees. The current study examines the relationships between rational and irrational fan beliefs, and psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and stress), in football fans. It also investigates the moderating role of gender, marital status, and match outcomes in these relationships. The study involved 256 football fans, aged between 23 and 48 (Mage = 26.34). Moderator effect analysis was performed using PROCESS Macro. The analyses revealed that psychological distress was negatively correlated with rational fan beliefs and positively correlated with irrational fan beliefs. The moderating role of gender, marital status and match outcome was not significant. Male gender, single status, and losing a match were risk factors for mental health. Overall, the findings indicate that psychological distress is positively associated with irrational beliefs and negatively associated with rational beliefs, regardless of gender, marital status, or match outcome. The results are discussed in relation to REBT and fan studies.