ABSTRACT
Researchers attribute Relative Age Effects (RAEs) to three mechanisms: sport structures, physical development, and social agents. For sport structures, youth athletes are placed into annual age bands that amplify age-related differences among competitors. Further, increased depth of competition (i.e. sport popularity) contributes to RAEs. Physical growth (e.g. stature/weight) and development (e.g. maturation) likely elicit advantages for relatively older athletes. Lastly, parents enrol their relatively older children in sport at earlier ages, while coaches appear to equate physical size with talent, thus selecting relatively older athletes to their elite team. As such, social agents influence RAEs.
