Laboratoire Sport et Environnement Social, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France.
Eur J Sport Sci. 2013;13(4):400-6. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2011.635703. Epub 2011 Dec 5.
Previous research suggested that the relative age effect (RAE) has a psychological influence on children and their decision to engage in a particular sport. Relatively younger children seem to have lower self-esteem. Indeed, because of the disadvantages of being younger, it is assumed that these players experience more situations of failure and inferiority. Because of these negative performance cues, it is likely that these young players feel less competent, which eventually leads to a higher dropout rate. These children can also decide to participate in sports in which physical attributes are less important. This shift from one sport to another can be interpreted as a 'strategic adaptation'. The purpose of this study was thus to investigate whether refereeing could be another form of 'strategic adaptation'. If a child chooses a specific sport but then does not feel competent enough to be a player, refereeing might be an alternate path followed to stay in the environment of a sport they like. Given the minimal age limits for refereeing, two hypotheses were formulated: (1) 'reversed' RAE would be observed in district referees younger than 18 years old and (2) no RAE would be observed in district referees older than 18 years old, regional referees and national referees. The birthdates of all official male soccer referees (n=13,952) were collected from the federation database. Results show that the distribution of all district referees was significantly unbalanced (χ(2)=18.73, df=3, P<0.001) with an over-representation of individuals who were born in the second half of the competitive year. As expected, this imbalance was exclusively located in district referees of 18 years old and less (χ(2)=8.03, df=3, P<0.05), while the distribution was uniform for adults (χ(2)=5.17, df=3, P<0.16). Concerning regional referees (χ(2)=2.09, df=3, P<0.554) and national referees (χ(2)=3.75, df=3, P<0.290), the results also provide support for our initial hypothesis as uniform distributions were found for both groups. This study brings to light new elements in the potential relationship between relative age and refereeing. Qualitative and/or longitudinal research is needed to confirm our quantitative data.
先前的研究表明，相对年龄效应（RAE）会对儿童及其参与特定运动的决策产生心理影响。相对年轻的孩子似乎自尊心较低。事实上，由于年龄较小的劣势，人们认为这些运动员经历了更多的失败和自卑感。由于这些负面的表现线索，这些年轻的运动员可能会感到能力不足，最终导致更高的辍学率。这些孩子也可以决定参加身体属性不太重要的运动。这种从一项运动到另一项运动的转变可以被解释为一种“策略性适应”。因此，本研究的目的是调查裁判是否可以成为另一种形式的“策略性适应”。如果孩子选择了一项特定的运动，但后来觉得自己没有足够的能力成为一名运动员，那么裁判可能是他们留在自己喜欢的运动环境中的另一种选择。鉴于裁判的最低年龄限制，提出了两个假设：（1）在 18 岁以下的地区裁判中观察到“反转”的 RAE，（2）在 18 岁以上的地区裁判、地区裁判和国家裁判中观察不到 RAE。所有官方男性足球裁判的出生日期（n=13952）均从联合会数据库中收集。结果表明，所有地区裁判的分布明显不平衡（χ(2)=18.73，df=3，P<0.001），在竞争年度下半年出生的个体比例过高。不出所料，这种不平衡仅存在于 18 岁及以下的地区裁判中（χ(2)=8.03，df=3，P<0.05），而成年人的分布则是均匀的（χ(2)=5.17，df=3，P<0.16）。至于地区裁判（χ(2)=2.09，df=3，P<0.554）和国家裁判（χ(2)=3.75，df=3，P<0.290），结果也为我们的初始假设提供了支持，因为两组的分布均为均匀分布。本研究揭示了相对年龄与裁判之间潜在关系的新元素。需要进行定性和/或纵向研究来证实我们的定量数据。
