Relative age effect and dropout causes in a multisport club setting. Is there a special reason to give up?

Abstract

The aim of the present study was 1) compare the drop-out rates between athletes born in different trimesters of the competitive year from different sports and 2) identify the causes pointed by the dropped-out athletes born in different selection year trimesters to disengage from the competitive sports environment. Methods: Data from 966 athletes who left the competitive sports context were analyzed under the Relative Age Effect (RAE) theoretical framework during 3 consecutive seasons. The drop-out rate and the reason to quit the competitive environment were analyzed by a routine club questionnaire. Results: An expected reverse RAE on drop-out rates was identified, in which the early born athletes were overrepresented (p<0.001). Regarding the reasons to disengage from competitive sports environment, no reason emerged as the main cause to dropout between athletes born in different selection year trimester. Conclusion: It was concluded that despite the common assumption that personal psychological issues related to RAE in late born athletes are important factors influencing sports disengagement, the relationship between drop-out and RAE is more complex and multifactorial.

The relative age effect in Czech orienteering runners

“…Pokud se zaměříme přímo na komparaci pololetí (S i ) v jednotlivých věkových kategoriích, ve většině případů byl výsledek dokonce opačný, oproti výsledkům studií potvrzujících RAE. Pro tento jev se používá anglický termín "reverse RAE" anebo "inverse RAE" (DeCouto et al, 2021;Langham-Walsh, Gottwald, & Hardy, 2021;Penna et al, 2018;Ramos-Filho & Ferreira, 2021) a značí, že nejvyšší četnost mají ve sportovních výběrech sportovci narození v pozdějších měsících roku, resp. ve druhém pololetí kalendářního (selekčního) roku.…”

Relative Age Effect: A Systematic Discrimination against Biologically Younger Athletes

“…In total, RAE progressively increased from the child (<11 yrs) to the adolescent age (15-18 yrs) before reduced within the senior age (>18 yrs). This reduction is probably explained by several mechanisms such as higher rates of dropping out of younger athletes (Lemez, Fraser-Thomas, 2018;Penna, Campos, Gonçalves, Godinho, Lima, Prado, 2018), reduction of physical maturity differences (Cobley et al, 2009), and transfer from one sport to another depending on the compatibility of performance requirements (Baker, Cote, Abernethy, 2003). Regarding the relationship between RAE and competition level, it has been found an increased magnitude of RAE at higher competition levels (Cobley et al, 2009;Lovell et al, 2015;Romann, Cobley, 2015).…”