Relative age effect in Spanish elite sport: a comparative analysis of handball, basketball and football by competitive level and gender
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v85.119949Keywords:
Gender, maturation, relative age , sport, sports trainingAbstract
Introduction: in sport, classifying athletes by year of birth during the training period generated inequalities in learning opportunities, a phenomenon known as the Relative Age Effect (RAE).
Objective: this study aimed to analyze the RAE, according to birth quarter, in the highest categories of Spanish sport, comparing handball, basketball and football, four competitive levels (league, European, World and Olympic Games) and both genders.
Methodology: birth quarter, sport, level and gender were collected for 8,179 athletes (24 groups), applying chi-square tests and a weighted meta-regression model on the logarithm of the RAE coefficient.
Results: RAE was significant and consistent in the male sample for handball (χ² = 4.79-8.94; p ≤ 0.045) and football (χ² = 16.56-23.31; p ≤ 0.001) across almost all levels, more heterogeneous in male basketball (χ² = 1.15-8.25), and absent across the entire female sample (all p > 0.06).
Discussion: no significant association was found between competitive level and RAE magnitude (p = 0.917), a result that should be interpreted with caution given the sample overlap between league and national team levels; the higher male prevalence of RAE described in meta-analytic reviews was qualified by a sport-specific interaction, more pronounced in football than in basketball (p = 0.037).
Conclusions: RAE in Spanish elite sport is a predominantly male phenomenon, whose magnitude depends on the interaction between sport and gender rather than on competitive level considered in isolation.
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