Lupo Corrado, Boccia Gennaro, Ungureanu Alexandru Nicolae, Frati Riccardo, Marocco Roberto, Brustio Paolo Riccardo
NeuroMuscularFunction Research Group, School of Exercise & Sport Sciences, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
School of Exercise & Sport Sciences, SUISM, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2019 Jun 26;10:1465. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01465. eCollection 2019.
Many previous studies in national team sports did not report evidence about relative age effect (RAE) in senior categories. This study aimed for the first time to determine if the RAE may specifically affect the early, but not the late, phase of senior career in elite team sports. A total of 3,319 birthdates (basketball: = 642; rugby: = 572; soccer: = 1318; volleyball: = 337; water polo: = 450) of elite senior players were analyzed. Senior players with an age lower or equal to the 25° percentile of age were considered as players while the others as players. Separate Poisson regression models were applied to investigate the RAE in each sport (overall, and for and subgroups). Considering the overall sample, players born close to the beginning of the year were 1.57, 1.34, 2.69, 1.48, and 1.45 times more likely to reach first and second Italian division of basketball, rugby, soccer, volleyball, and water polo respectively, than those born in the last part of the year. RAE was present in all subgroups. Differently, in the subgroups the RAE was present only in soccer. Data highlighted a bias in the selection of senior teams, which may limit the chance to identify talented players born late in the second part of the year. Italian sport federations should promote the talent development of relatively younger players by equally promoting the joining of young players to senior teams.
此前许多关于国家队运动项目的研究并未报告高级别赛事中相对年龄效应（RAE）的相关证据。本研究首次旨在确定RAE是否会特别影响精英团队运动项目高级职业生涯的早期阶段，而非后期阶段。分析了总共3319名精英成年运动员的出生日期（篮球：642人；橄榄球：572人；足球：1318人；排球：337人；水球：450人）。年龄低于或等于年龄第25百分位数的成年运动员被视为年轻运动员，其他运动员则为年长运动员。应用单独的泊松回归模型来研究每项运动中的RAE（总体情况，以及年轻和年长亚组）。考虑总体样本，年初出生的运动员进入意大利篮球、橄榄球、足球、排球和水球甲级和乙级联赛的可能性分别是年末出生运动员的1.57倍、1.34倍、2.69倍、1.48倍和1.45倍。RAE在所有年轻亚组中均存在。不同的是，在年长亚组中，RAE仅在足球项目中存在。数据突出了成年队选拔中的偏差，这可能会限制识别年末出生的有天赋运动员的机会。意大利体育联合会应通过平等推动年轻运动员加入成年队来促进相对年轻运动员的人才发展。
