The relative age effect (RAE) suggests that athletes born earlier in a sport.s selection year have an advantage in terms of team selection and playing opportunities. While this is highly prevalent in men.s sports, little work has been directed at examining the RAE in women.s sports. The studies to date present an equivocal pattern of findings across a variety of women.s sports. The purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence of the RAE in Canadian women.s ice hockey. Relative age and player position information on 660 female hockey players registered with Hockey Canada were gathered from the Hockey Canada website. From the chi-square analyses, there was a higher proportion of female players born in Q2 (32.88%) than in Q4 (16.82%), and a higher proportion born in the first half of the year (60.00%) as compared to the second (40.00%). These data suggest that similar to previous research on men.s hockey, opportunities for females to participate at an elite level are concentrated primarily among relatively older players. We anticipate that the increasing growth and popularity of women.s ice hockey will result in the RAE becoming even more pronounced at all levels of participation.
© Copyright 2010 Talent Development & Excellence. International Research Association for Talent Development and Excellence. All rights reserved.