Relative Age Effect in Elite Sports: Methodological Bias or Real Discrimination?

Sport sciences researchers talk about a relative age effect when they observe a biased distribution of elite athletes' birthdates, with an over-representation of those born at the beginning of the competitive year and an under-representation of those born at the end. Using the whole sample of the French male licensed soccer players (n = 1,831,524), our study suggests that there could be an important bias in the statistical test of this effect. This bias could in turn lead to falsely conclude to a systemic discrimination in the recruitment of professional players. Our findings question the accuracy of past results concerning the existence of this effect at the elite level

The Role of Relative Age, Community Size, and Positive Youth Development on Female Youth Soccer Participation

Objective: The overarching purpose of this dissertation was to use relative age as a basis to examine the developmental sport experience of youth and explore factors related to sport engagement and positive youth development in organized, female soccer in Ontario, Canada. Female dropout trends were documented for the first time in a longitudinal manner (i.e., covering the pre-adolescent to post-adolescent transition years) in a popular youth sport context. Analyses were informed by multiple points of reference (i.e., date of birth, participation records, competition level, community size and density, and self-report of the participants). New research avenues were explored to generate hypotheses for future research; which included neighbourhood level variables and developmental assets. Methods: An anonymized dataset of all female registrants in a one-year cohort was provided by Ontario Soccer. This dataset included all registration entries across a seven-year period (age 10 to 16 years). A total of 38,248 registration entries for 9,915 participants were available for examination. Several quantitative approaches were used across three studies, including Kaplan Meier and Cox regression survival analyses, odds ratio analyses, discriminant analysis, binary logistic regression, and chi-square analysis. Results: The key finding of the current research suggests that relative age continues to be an important variable with respect to youth sport participation and continued engagement; with the relatively oldest being more likely to participate and remain engaged between the ages of 10 to 16 years. Competition level was observed to be an important variable, with ‘competitive’ and ‘recreational’ trajectories varying in terms of relative age distribution and retention rates (55.9% vs. 20.7% continued to participate at age 16 years, respectively). In general, mid-sized and less densely populated communities appeared to provide the greatest likelihood of participation in youth soccer; although considerable within-category variation was observed. Built environment emerged as a potential avenue for future research. Overall developmental asset scores did not appear to be protective against sport dropout; but relatively younger female soccer players scored higher in two internal asset categories, commitment to learning and positive values, suggesting sport-related challenges may further individual development in these areas. Conclusions: Relative age effects continue to contribute to participation and development inequities in sport. Detailed research into the underlying mechanisms and potential intervention strategies is still required. Future studies should be guided by an appropriate theoretical framework; the selection of which depends on the primary goal(s) of the research

The Influence of Relative Age on Developmental Outcomes in Female Ice Hockey

When properly structured, sport has the capacity to offer athletes numerous positive outcomes. However, the seemingly simple procedure of dividing athletes by chronological age causes relative age disparities which are associated with varying sporting experiences and opportunities for participation. Relative age effects (RAEs) are developmental (dis)advantages associated with an individual’s birthdate and where that falls relative to a pre-determined cut-off date. The objective of this dissertation was to explore differences in positive youth development (PYD) across the relative ages of female ice hockey players, as well as to determine if the mechanisms that contribute to athletes’ acquisition of PYD differed by relative age. This aim was accomplished through three interrelated studies. In Chapter 2, differences in leadership behaviours were examined while accounting for athletes’ relative age. The findings of this study illustrated that the frequency with which female ice hockey players engage in leadership behaviours did not vary by relative age, supporting prior research in male ice hockey. Chapter 3 expanded the investigation of relative age on PYD by exploring how positive and negative developmental experiences differ by athletes’ relative ages. The results of this study showed that relative age was not a differentiating factor in female ice hockey players’ developmental experiences. Thus, the findings from Chapters 2 and 3 suggest that if female ice hockey players can overcome the initial selection bias associated with relative age, then their opportunities for PYD appear to be equitable. Chapter 4 builds on Chapters 2 and 3 by including interviews with relatively older and younger female ice hockey players that sought to gain insight into what mechanisms contributed or hindered their development of PYD outcomes. Secondary aims included determining if PYD outcomes varied by relative age as well as how athletes employed these skills in other contexts. The social features of the sport environment, the structure of female travel/rep ice hockey, and negative ice hockey experiences (e.g., difficult team dynamics, challenges with coaches, playing on boys’ teams) served as the overarching mechanisms that facilitated or hindered athletes’ development of PYD outcomes. Regardless of their relative age, athletes reported developing PYD outcomes in the personal, physical, and social domains as well as using these skills in many contexts outside of hockey. Future research is needed to explore if relative age influences PYD among those who have dropped out of sport. The findings from this dissertation can be used to inform the design of sport programming that aims to achieve PYD

Analysing a built-in advantage in asymmetric darts contests using causal machine learning

We analyse a sequential contest with two players in darts where one of the contestants enjoys a technical advantage. Using methods from the causal machine learning literature, we analyse the built-in advantage, which is the first-mover having potentially more but never less moves. Our empirical findings suggest that the first-mover has an 8.6% points higher probability to win the match induced by the technical advantage. Contestants with low performance measures and little experience have the highest built-in advantage. With regard to the fairness principle that contestants with equal abilities should have equal winning probabilities, this contest is ex-ante fair in the case of equal built-in advantages for both competitors and a randomized starting right. Nevertheless, the contest design produces unequal probabilities of winning for equally skilled contestants because of asymmetries in the built-in advantage associated with social pressure for contestants competing at home and away

Equitable birthdate categorization systems for organized minor sports competition

In some organized minor sports programs where there is early competitive streaming, players born early in the year are more likely to reach elite levels than those born late in the year. This is generally attributed to the calendar year system most minor sports programs use to group players for the purposes of competition. In this paper I show how to devise more equitable systems based only on player ages. These systems rotate the relative age advantage so that those players born late in the calendar year are not always the youngest players in their age division.Societal problem analysis Scheduling

IN RE: SOCIAL MEDIA ADOLESCENT ADDICTION/PERSONAL INJURY PRODUCTS LIABILITY LITIGATION,

Motion to Dismis

Facing stigma, negotiating expectations, and exploring identities in a special olympics group transitioning into adulthood

Special Olympics continues to be controversial to those who criticize any segregated activity that is not inclusive for people with disabilities. Rather than dismissing the Special Olympics outright as an outdated organization that has not kept pace with the push towards inclusion, I engage these controversies from the perspectives of the disciplines of folklore and disability studies. I demonstrate that close attention to the actual practices and lived experiences of a Special Olympics group provides important insights about the challenges and goals of inclusive versus exclusive practices. I examine the athletes’ conceptions of identity, disability, and kinship to better understand how stigma affects people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and the opportunities for full the participation in public life. Based on extensive ethnographic research, participant observation, and open-ended interviews with adult athletes, their families, coaches, and support professionals, I describe a Midwestern team’s activities, including athletic practices, games, home life, and social events. To what extent people with IDD are aware of stigma and its effects emerges as one of the underlying questions from this research. In addressing this, I encounter methodological challenges that require an appreciation for different communication styles, including deceptive practices, moments of resistance, and exercises of agency. I begin by looking at the history of the Special Olympics, how it is structured, and where it provides (or inhibits) possibilities for full participation. As part of that discussion, I describe the roles of safety, sportsmanship, and self-esteem. To further develop the issues that arise in discussing Special Olympics and inclusion from a disability studies perspective, I turn to the subjects of pity and its corollary, the celebration of individuals with IDD as mascots who are awarded symbolic, rather than actual, roles in sports, school, or community events. As mascots, individuals with IDD are hypervisible, but this does not necessarily counter the stigma they experience that prevents them from being fully included in other domains. In particular, obtaining and maintaining competitive employment are often the central measures of inclusion, so my concluding chapter considers the challenges faced by Special Olympics athletes in the workplace

An Exploration of Learning-At-Home Experiences Among Families and Children of Color Labeled with Disabilities During COVID-19: A Narrative Inquiry

We are living in this historical moment of a COVID-19 global crisis that is continuing to impact marginalized families in our very own communities. Students of color, especially those who are already on the margins, and experience inequities in the classroom and in the community, have been further impacted by the quarantine as the educational system had not prioritized how to support students who face certain vulnerabilities due to lack of government funding, the historical oppressive tendency for schools to function within a medical model of standardization, along with the commodification of learning. Given the novelty of COVID-19 research, the full impact on these communities is yet to be fully known. Some students of color labeled with disabilities are faced with deeper struggles exacerbated by the pandemic’s impact, while others may have improved performance during distance learning due to the removal of inherent bias in the classroom or the traditional inequities that may be perpetuated in a traditional school environment. Within a DisCrit theoretical framework that centers and celebrates the intersectional identities of these families and children, this study is about exploring the unique experiences of public, private and charter school students and their families in the San Francisco Bay area. Centering the narratives of families of color and their children labeled with learning disabilities is one way to shift the voice of power and dominant narratives, and to begin to understand their lived experiences as a way to decenter and dismantle white privilege, ableism and heteronormative supremacy. This qualitative narrative inquiry based study centers and celebrates the lived experiences of six families and their children of color labeled with learning disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic-fueled remote learning crisis. The thematic findings from this study can inform policymakers and other stakeholders on how to best support these communities, advocate for school-based rights within a constructivist lens, and contribute to the dearth in scholarly research that supports disability justice

Identifying Gait Deficits in Stroke Patients Using Inertial Sensors

Falls remain a significant problem for stroke patients. Tripping, the main cause of falls, occurs when there is insufficient clearance between the foot and ground. Based on an individual’s gait deficits, different joint angles and coordination patterns are necessary to achieve adequate foot clearance during walking. However, gait deficits are typically only quantified in a research or clinical setting, and it would be helpful to use wearable devices – such as accelerometers – to quantify gait disorders in real-world situations. Therefore, the objective of this project was to understand gait characteristics that influence the risk of tripping, and to detect these characteristics using accelerometers. Thirty-five participants with a range of walking abilities performed normal walking and attempted to avoid tripping on an unexpected object while gait characteristics were quantified using motion capture techniques and accelerometers. Multiple regression was used to identify the relationship between joint coordination and foot clearance, and multiple analysis of variance was used to determine characteristics of gait that differ between demographic groups, as well as those that enable obstacle avoidance. Machine learning techniques were employed to detect joint angles and the risk of tripping from patterns in accelerometer signals. Measures of foot clearance that represent toe height throughout swing instead of at a single time point are more sensitive to changes in joint coordination, with hip-knee coordination during midswing having the greatest effect. Participants with a history of falls or stroke perform worse than older non-fallers and young adults on many factors related to falls risk, however, there are no differences in the ability to avoid an unexpected obstacle between these groups. Individuals with an inability to avoid an obstacle have lower scores on functional evaluations, exhibit limited sagittal plane joint range of motion during swing, and adopt a conservative walking strategy. Machine learning processes can be used to predict knee range of motion and classify individuals at risk for tripping based on an ankle-worn accelerometer. This work is significant because a portable device that detects gait characteristics relevant to the risk of tripping without expensive motion capture technology may reduce the risk of falls for stroke patients

Improving a country’s education: PISA 2018 Results in 10 Countries

This book is probably one of the first to be published, or even the first, about the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018. It discusses how PISA results in ten different countries have evolved and what makes countries change. Information on each country’s educational system contextualizes the discussion about PISA and other Large-Scale International Assessments’ results, such as TIMSS, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies. One reason only made it possible for us to present this work to the reader with such a short delay after PISA results were published in December 2019: we were very fortunate to be able to gather an exceptionally knowledgeable and generous group of international experts. The ten countries discussed in this volume represent a wide variety of educational systems, from Australia and Taiwan, in the East, to England, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Portugal and Spain, in Europe, and to Chile and the USA, in the Americas. We have high-performing countries, countries that are around the OECD average, and countries that are struggling to attain the OECD average. Each country has its history that reflects efforts to improve educational achievement. The book is organized as follows. Each chapter is a data-based essay about the evolution of a specific country, discussed and supported by PISA results and other data, and represents the personal stance of the authors. Thus, each author represents his or her own views and not those from his or her institution or government. Each author draws on published data, as well as on a vast set of information and supports his or her view with data and reliable information. The introductory chapter gathers my reading of the ten chapters. It follows the same principles: I express my views freely, but support them with the best information available. I do not claim to voice the opinion of the authors, and I am the sole responsible for what I wrote. A final chapter introduced following a Springer referee suggestion provides the necessary background in order to understand what PISA measures and how. It shows examples of PISA and TIMSS questions that convey a better idea on what the results of these surveys mean about students’ knowledge and skills. I am honored to edit this book, and I am sure it will be useful to all those interested in understanding what it takes to improve a country’s education system.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio