ABSTRACT

Relative age effects (RAEs) explain the (dis)advantages individuals experience as a result of when they are born relative to a pre-determined cut-off date. Within an interuniversity setting, academic timing (AT) may moderate the RAE pattern due to some student-athletes having eligibility years that do not correspond with their birth years. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the RAE and AT on interuniversity football players. A series of chi-square goodness of fit tests (χ²) revealed no RAE when all student-athletes were analyzed together as well as among those who were delayed (i.e. eligibility years that correspond with a younger cohort), and a traditional RAE among those who were on-time (i.e. eligibility years that correspond with their year of birth). Student-athletes ranged between 1 and 12 years delayed, with the majority of these athletes being delayed by one (30.76%) or two years (30.97%). This study suggests that there may be advantages to student-athletes delaying their participation within football, as these delays may help mitigate the overall RAE by equalizing playing opportunities for relatively younger student-athletes. However, delaying eligibility raises concerns about equity, particularly for those progressing to interuniversity football directly out of high school who may have to compete for roster spots against student-athletes who may be up to 12 years delayed.

摘要

相对年龄效应（RAE）解释了个人相对于预定的截止日期出生时所经历的（不利）优势。在大学环境中，由于某些学生运动员的资格年限与其出生年龄不符，因此学业时间（AT）可能会缓解RAE模式。这项研究的目的是研究RAE和AT对大学足球运动员的影响。一系列的配合测试卡方优度（χ ²）在对所有学生运动员以及所有被延误的学生（即与年轻一代相对应的资格年限）进行分析后，没有发现RAE，而在准时的学生（即与年龄相对应的资格年限）中则显示了传统的RAE他们的出生年份）。学生运动员的延误时间为1至12年，其中大多数运动员被延误了一年（30.76％）或两年（30.97％）。这项研究表明，学生运动员延迟参加足球比赛可能会有好处，因为这些延迟可以通过使相对年轻的学生运动员获得平等的比赛机会来帮助减轻总体RAE。但是，延迟资格引发了人们对公平的担忧，