Práxedes Alba, Moreno Alberto, García-González Luis, Pizarro David, Del Villar Fernando
Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain.
Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Zaragoza, Huesca, Spain.
J Hum Kinet. 2017 Dec 28;60:167-173. doi: 10.1515/hukin-2017-0100. eCollection 2017 Dec.
The Relative Age Effect (RAE) in sport has been targeted by many research studies. The objective of this study was to analyze, in amateur clubs, the RAE of soccer players, according to the sport expertise level of the team (e.g., A, B, C and subsequent) that they belong to within the same game category. 1,098 soccer players in formative stages took part in the study, with ages varying between 6 and 18 years old (U8 to U19 categories). All of them were members of 4 Spanish federated clubs. The birth dates were classified into 4 quartiles (Q1 = Jan-Mar; Q2 = Apr-Jun; Q3 = Jul-Sept; Q4 = Oct-Dec)according to the team they belonged to. The results obtained in the chi-squared test and d value (effect size) revealed the existence of RAE in the teams with the highest expertise level, "A" (X2 = 15.342, p = .002, d = 0.4473) and "B" (X2 = 10.905, p = .012, d = 0.3657). However, in the lower level teams, "C and subsequent", this effect was not observed. Present findings show that players born during the first months of the year tend to be selected to play in teams with a higher sport expertise level of each category, due to their physical maturity. Consequently, this causes differences in terms of the experience they accumulate and the motivation that this creates in these players.
体育领域的相对年龄效应（RAE）已成为众多研究的目标。本研究的目的是在业余俱乐部中，根据足球运动员所属球队在同一比赛类别中的运动专业水平（例如A、B、C等），分析其相对年龄效应。1098名处于成长阶段的足球运动员参与了这项研究，年龄在6至18岁之间（U8至U19组别）。他们均为4家西班牙足球联盟俱乐部的成员。根据他们所属的球队，出生日期被分为4个四分位数（Q1 = 1月至3月；Q2 = 4月至6月；Q3 = 7月至9月；Q4 = 10月至12月）。卡方检验和d值（效应量）的结果显示，在专业水平最高的“A”组（X2 = 15.342，p = 0.002，d = 0.4473）和“B”组（X2 = 10.905，p = 0.012，d = 0.3657）中存在相对年龄效应。然而，在较低水平的“C组及以下”球队中，未观察到这种效应。目前的研究结果表明，由于身体成熟度的原因，年初出生的球员往往更有可能被选入各类别中运动专业水平较高的球队。因此，这导致了他们在积累经验和由此产生的动力方面存在差异。
