Date of Award

2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.H.K.

Department

Kinesiology

First Advisor

Dixon, Jess

Second Advisor

Horton, Sean

Keywords

Academic timing, Canadian Interuniversity Sport, Relative age effect

Rights

CC-BY-NC-ND

Abstract

Relative age effects (RAE) are developmental advantages experienced by those born in the initial months after a predetermined cut-off date over their younger counterparts. Student-athletes are considered to be ‘on-time’ when their current year of athletic eligibility coincides with their expected year of athletic eligibility, based on their year of birth. Conversely, student-athletes are considered ‘delayed’ when their current athletic eligibility year corresponds with a younger cohort. This project examined the RAE and academic timing within nine of the 12 Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championship sports. A moderate RAE was seen among the entire sample of CIS student- athletes. Males are more likely to be delayed than females, and those student-athletes born in the later months of the year are more frequently delayed compared to their relatively older peers. Based on these results, delaying one’s athletic eligibly may be an effective method to reduce the disadvantages associated with being relatively younger.

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