An Examination of the Impact of Relative Age Effects and Academic Timing on Intercollegiate Athletics Participation in Women's Softball

This investigation makes three noteworthy contributions to literature on the Relative Age Effect (RAE); 1) it adds to the small number of studies in women's sports, 2) it is one of very few papers to examine the RAE in intercollegiate athletics, and 3) it (re-)introduces "academic timing&q...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jess C. Dixon (Author), Vincenzo Liburdi (Author), Sean Horton (Author), Patricia L. Weir (Author)
Format: Book
Published: University of Kansas Libraries, 2013-12-01T00:00:00Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to this object online.
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This investigation makes three noteworthy contributions to literature on the Relative Age Effect (RAE); 1) it adds to the small number of studies in women's sports, 2) it is one of very few papers to examine the RAE in intercollegiate athletics, and 3) it (re-)introduces "academic timing" to the discussion of RAEs in this context. The 50 top-ranked NCAA Division I women's softball teams at the conclusion of the 2011 season served as the focus for this investigation. Student-athletes were grouped into quartiles according to their birth date and identified as "on-time" or "academically delayed" based on their birth year and eligibility status. On-time student-athletes were over four times more likely to be born in quartile one than in quartile four, demonstrating a traditional RAE. This pattern was reversed for those who were academically delayed, with quartile four birth dates constituting more than half of the entire sample.
Item Description:10.1123/jis.6.2.147
1941-6342
1941-417X