Relative age is associated with sport dropout: evidence from youth categories of French basketball.
The aim of the current research was to investigate the relative age effect (RAE) as a factor of basketball dropout. In order to do so, we examined the distribution of birth dates of young male (n=44,498) and female (n=30,147) French basketball players who have dropped out this sport during or at the end of the 2005-2006 season. χ(2) analyses showed an underrepresentation of dropouts among male players born early in the competition year and an overrepresentation among those born late in the "9-10 years old,""11-12 years old," and "13-14 years old" categories and in the first year of the "15-17 years old" category. Concerning girls, this asymmetry was observed across the same age categories. For both boys and girls, there was no biased distribution in the "7-8 years old" category. Findings of the present study confirm that the RAE should be taken into consideration in studies about sport dropout as a variable that may influence this phenomenon significantly.
UFRAPS, Laboratoire Sport et Environnement Social, Université J. Fourier-Grenoble 1, Grenoble, France. nicolas.delorme@ujf-grenoble.fr
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Delorme
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Chalabaev
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Raspaud
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D056352:Athletes / Q000523:psychology*; D054874:Athletic Performance; D001490:Basketball / Q000523:psychology*; D001519:Behavior; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male