Abstract
The present study investigated the association of the relative age effect, a biased distribution of birth dates, with a high school versus university background in Japanese professional soccer and baseball players. The number of athletes born in the first quarter (April–June) was larger than the number born in the fourth quarter (January–March) for both soccer and baseball; however, the magnitude of the relative age effect differed with years in school. The skew of birth dates was stronger among players who only graduated high school than those who graduated university or college. This phenomenon was confirmed in both baseball and soccer players. The findings suggest relative age effects in professional sports to be related to years of age and years in school.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.