Small Relative Age Effect Appears in Professional Female Italian Team Sports

Paolo Riccardo Brustio, Gennaro Boccia, Paolo De Pasquale, Corrado Lupo and Alexandru Nicolae Ungureanu
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Paolo Riccardo Brustio: Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement, University of Verona, 37131 Verona, Italy
Gennaro Boccia: Neuro Muscular Function Research Group, School of Exercise & Sport Sciences, University of Turin, 10143 Turin, Italy
Paolo De Pasquale: Neuro Muscular Function Research Group, School of Exercise & Sport Sciences, University of Turin, 10143 Turin, Italy
Corrado Lupo: Neuro Muscular Function Research Group, School of Exercise & Sport Sciences, University of Turin, 10143 Turin, Italy
Alexandru Nicolae Ungureanu: Neuro Muscular Function Research Group, School of Exercise & Sport Sciences, University of Turin, 10143 Turin, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: The relative age effect (RAE) concerns those (dis)advantages and outcomes resulting from an interaction between the dates of selection and birthdates. Although this phenomenon is well known in a male context, limited data are available in female sports. Thus, the aim of this study was to quantify the prevalence and magnitude of the RAE in a female Italian context at the professional level in basketball, soccer, and volleyball. A total of 1535 birthdates of elite senior players were analyzed overall and separately between early and late career stages. Chi-square goodness-of-fit tests were applied to investigate the RAE in each sport. An asymmetry in birthdates was observed in all sports (Crammer’s V ranged = 0.10–0.12). Players born close to the beginning of the year were 1.62 and 1.61 times more likely to reach first and second Italian divisions of soccer and volleyball, respectively, than those born in the last part of the year. A small over-representation of female athletes born close to the beginning of the year is evident at the senior professional level in all Italian investigated team sports. In soccer, this trend was more evident in the first stage of a senior career.

Keywords: gender difference; RAE; talent development; team sports (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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