The Relative Age Effect in Sport: A Developmental Systems Model

The policies that dictate the participation structure of many youth sport systems involve the use of a set selection date (e.g. 31 December), which invariably produces relative age differences between those within the selection year (e.g. 1 January to 31 December). Those born early in the selection...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sports medicine (Auckland) 2015-01, Vol.45 (1), p.83-94
Main Authors: Wattie, Nick, Schorer, Jörg, Baker, Joseph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age differences
Age discrimination
Age Factors
Athletes
Athletic Performance - physiology
Body Size
Environment
Humans
Ice hockey
Influence
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Models, Theoretical
Review Article
Sexual Maturation
Social sciences
Sports - physiology
Sports Medicine
System theory
Task Performance and Analysis
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Summary:The policies that dictate the participation structure of many youth sport systems involve the use of a set selection date (e.g. 31 December), which invariably produces relative age differences between those within the selection year (e.g. 1 January to 31 December). Those born early in the selection year (e.g. January) are relatively older—by as much as 12 months minus 1 day—than those born later in the selection year (e.g. December). Research in the area of sport has identified a number of significant developmental effects associated with such relative age differences. However, a theoretical framework that describes the breadth and complexity of relative age effects (RAEs) in sport does not exist in the literature. This paper reviews and summarizes the existing literature on relative age in sport, and proposes a constraints-based developmental systems model for RAEs in sport.
ISSN:0112-1642
1179-2035
DOI:10.1007/s40279-014-0248-9