Abstract
A growing body of literature highlights the critical role that an individual's early sport environment plays in facilitating athletic development. Indeed, evidence exists to suggest that contextual factors relating to young athletes' initial exposure to sport may have an important impact on their continued sport participation and their chances for attaining athletic success (Côté, Baker, & Abernethy, 2007; MacDonald, Cheung, Côté, & Abernethy, 2009). The purpose of the present study was to investigate two of these contextual factors, birth date (known as the relative age effect; RAE) and city of development, as determinants of participation in a sample of youth ice hockey players. The sample included 146,424 athletes registered with Ontario youth ice hockey between the 2004-2010 seasons. Chi-square statistics determined a significant RAE in youth ice hockey (?2(3, 146,424) = 1000.34, p < .01, w= .08). Findings also revealed that smaller cities (populations below 100,000) produced significantly more youth ice hockey participants than expected, while larger cities (populations above 100,000) produced significantly fewer youth ice hockey participants than expected. Finally, there was no evidence of an interaction between relative age and city of development. The consistent pattern of RAEs and the characteristics of smaller communities that may facilitate sport participation across all youth are discussed, along with recommendations for future research.Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank Bill Pearce, Jeffrey Moon, Melissa Wolk, and the OHF for their assistance with this project. Preparation of this manuscript was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) standard research grant (#410-2011-0472).