The Month of Birth as Relative Age and its Effect on Socialization into Elite Sports : Exploring Gender Differences

The relative age effect (RAE), the advantage of being born early within a cohort, is known to penetrate across sports and countries. In this study gender differences in RAE on the elite sports were analyzed in swimming, track and field, judo, basketball, volleyball and soccer in Japan. In examining RAE, spearman rank-order correlation coefficient and simple linear regression analysis were performed. Soccer ranked first in favor of males in RAE difference between male and female, with volleyball last. The factors that make these two events different with regard to gender are considered from two points of view, player population and exposure to mass media.