Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Spor Bilimleri Dergisi, cilt.34, sa.2, ss.88-97, 2023 (Hakemli Dergi)
Early identification and development of “talented” athletes in youth sport is of primary interest to national governing bodies of sport and sport clubs across all sports. Selection bias during recruitment and planning the developmental pathways of athletes is a critical issue to address, and relative age effect (RAE) is one of the concepts to be investigated in this regard. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of RAE in U17 and U20 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and to investigate the role of age category, playing position and continents with regard to RAE. A total of 2016 female soccer players (U17=1008, U20=1008) participating in the last three consecutive U17 and U20 FIFA Women's World Cups were evaluated based on the birth month distributions. Inter-quartile differences were assessed using the Chi-square (χ²) goodness-of-fit test, and odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to compare quartiles. RAE was more prevalent in U17 compared to U20 (χ2=43.865, p<.001, V=0.12; χ2=24.071, p<.001, V=0.09, respectively). For all positions, the number of female soccer players born in the first quarter of the year was higher than those born in the last quarter. In U17, RAE was statistically significant in all positions, while in U20 only defenders and midfielders’ distributions were significantly skewed. In conclusion, RAE is a critical issue to investigate in female soccer context, and age categories, playing position and continents seem such moderators of RAE that coaches and policy makers need to consider.