The researcher investigates the Relative

Age Effect (RAE) in the academic study of

sport. As hypothesized there is a

relationship for those students being born

on a certain date will indeed influence the

decision to study a sports related course

at an educational institution.

In northern European countries it is known for

children to start their compulsory education at an

institution aged six or seven, nonetheless

legislation within England it is:

a) when he attains the age of five, if he

attains that age on a prescribed day, and b)

otherwise at the beginning of the prescribed day

next following his attaining that age. (UK Legislation

1996, Compulsory Education Section 8)

Plus recently witnessed is the gender difference

within the United Kingdom with girls usually doing

better than boys in educational achievements

(Roberts & Fairclough 2012, cited in Burgess,

McConnell, Propper & Wilson, (2004). Similarly

BBC News (2008) announced 60.7% of September-

born girls and 50.3% of September-born boys

achieved five good GCSEs grades A* to C. As

opposed to, 55.2% of August-born girls and 44.2%

of August-born boys did so. Therefore this suggests

those students who are the youngest in the year

shall be placed behind their older peers even up to

the age of 16.

Whilst The Matthew Effect seen in figure 1. even

occurs whenever class peers compare each other

generally being much faster, taller and more

muscular.

The Effect Birth Date Has On Choosing To Study A

Sports Related Course At An Educational Institution

BBC News (2008) Summer-born to start school later. Available at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7178969.stm [Accessed on: 15/01/2013]

Easton, VJ. & Mc Coll, JH. (2012) Statistics Glossary. Available at:

http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/steps/glossary/categorical_data.html#chigof [Accessed on:

28/11/2012]

Ford, PR., & Williams, AM. (2011) No Relative Age Effect in the Birth Dates of Award-

Winning Athletes in Male Professional Team Sports. Research Quarterly for Exercise

and Sport. 82(3), pp. 570–573.

Roberts, S. & Fairclough, S. (2012) The Influence of Relative Age Effect in the

Assessment of High School Students in Physical Education in the United Kingdom.

Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 31, pp.56-70.

Tucker, R. & Dugas, J. (2009) The Matthew Effect. Available at:

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2009/01/matthew-effect.html?m=1 (Accessed on:

29/12/2012).

UK Legislation (1996) Education Act 1996. Available at:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/56/section/8#section-8-2 [Accessed on:

15/01/2013]

This investigation shown an over populace

representation of male students compared to

females who are studying a sport related

academic course at educational institutions

(Figure 2). The observed comparisons of

frequencies in addition to the frequencies that

would be expected from the normalised

distribution of students live births studying at

GCSE BTEC Level 1 and 2 (Figure 3). For the

participation of students on undergraduate

courses the frequency is higher amongst those

born early in the starting date for the educational

institution and correspondingly in comparison

lower between those students who born later in

the year (Figure 4).

Discussion

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of

those students being born on a certain date will indeed

influence the decision to study a sports related course at an

educational institution. The main findings shown there were

no significant findings in the birth dates of an individual and

studying a sports academic course. Consequently derived

from the results it can be presented that the effect birth date

did not have a great influence on choosing to study a sports

related course at an educational institution.

Additionally it is shown there to be a poor relationship

between the observed and expected frequencies.

Specifically Easton & Mc Coll, (2012) indicating if this

occurs it being rejected would be the null hypothesis of

independence / no association as occurs during the chi-

squared test of association being too big of a value for the

test statistic. Therefore different statistical procedures be

used to better determine if statistical significance occurs

from deviations for the expected frequencies between the

number of births within particular sample size groups.

However this study includes discrepancies between the

data sets of students studying sport related academic

courses at educational institutions. This is because there is

a much larger sample size of students from undergraduate

courses when compared to the lower samples of those

studying GCSE’s courses which can be either at BTEC

Level 1 or Level 2. Furthermore this includes students who

are studying sport as part of their A-Level‘s and / or BTEC’s

at Level 3. Likewise Ford and Williams (2011) found their

investigation had a lower sample size when contrasted

against the previous literature into the Relative Age Effect.

Subsequently it would seem that sample size is associated

to the analyses of how much of an influence can be

discovered from the academic sports students live births.

BASES Student Conference, University of

Bedfordshire, 2013

Page, C.G. and Pears, D.

Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences

University of Bedfordshire

Bedford, MK41 9EA

Conclusions

References

Results

Methods Introduction

Hypotheses

Contacted various levels of educational

institutions requesting for

student information.

Step 1

Gatekeeper and the data managers securely

passed the relevant

information.

Step 2

Organised and arranged data collection into appropriate statistical

software and spreadsheet

software.

Step 3

Statistical analysis was determined

where appropriate using Chi-

square tests and formulas.

Step 4

To conclude this investigation was shown not to

be significant due to an individual’s birthdate

having no effect on choosing to study a sports

related course at an educational institution.

Figure 1. The Matthew Effect. (Adapted from Tucker & Dugas, 2009)

Up to 12 month difference in

maturity. Stronger, faster, improved co-

ordination and decision-making ability.

Difference in ability at school

level.

At ages younger than 12, ability is a

poor guide to talent & capacity.

Higher fall-out rate in first three years

– self-removal from talent pool.

Selection into squads

Better coaching

More playing time

Better competition &

team mates

Grade IV player 10 on 1st day of year turning 11 in that

year.

Jan – April birth e.g. 10 years 11 months at school

start.

Oct – Dec birth e.g. 10 years 1 month at school

start.

70%

30%

Male Female

34

41

48

33.3

33.3

33.3

0 20 40 60

September-December

January-April

May-August

Frequency

Mo

nth

s

Expected

Observed

Figure 2. The distribution of both

genders participating in sport related

academic course an educational

institution.

Figure 3. Observed and Expected frequencies

in September to December, January to April

and May to August groups at GCSE BTEC

Level 1 and 2 courses.

3110

2860 2883

2700

2750

2800

2850

2900

2950

3000

3050

3100

3150

September-December January-April May-August

Fre

qu

en

cy

Months

September-December January-April May-August

Figure 4. The distribution of live births between students on undergraduate courses.