I am looking for any research or theories that have been explored
relating to what effect date of births have on youth development.

An example.  You compare two children.  The first one born on January
1 and the second born on December 31st in the same year.

These two children would be in the same educational grade as each
other regardless of the fact that the first child is just shy of a
year more developed than the second child.  Does this GAP in age have
any statistical effect on the educational development of the child?

Many programs in our society are sectored off into age sets based on
the calendar year.  An example of this is Sports programs (football,
baseball, hockey, etc).  The same two children would be on the same
team as each other regardless of the fact that the first child is just
shy of a year more developed than the second child.  Does this GAP in
age have any statistical effect on the development of the child in
relation to the sports program that they are in?

These are only two examples that I have given but there are many more.
 I am interested in looking at any research and/or theories that have
been explored as it relates to these age GAPS.

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 18 Feb 2003 13:54 PST

Is this the kind of material you're looking for?

http://www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/CJP/1999/Feb/thompson.htm

http://www.health.uottawa.ca/hkgrad/mllab/eatrage.html

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Clarification of Question by travel_travel_travel-ga on 19 Feb 2003 09:32 PST

pinkfreud

I think you are on the right track.  Can you find me something similar
to the first study as it relates to the effect relative age has on
intelligence, confidence, social development, etc?

I think you hit it pretty close on the first try...although I’m not to
interested in the suicide effect.

Thanks!

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 19 Feb 2003 15:23 PST

travel_travel_travel,

I wish I could offer more, since I have a personal interest in your
subject matter (I was skipped ahead a grade in elementary school, and
from that point on, I was a year younger than my classmates, so I am
well aware of some of the problems that age differences can cause.)

Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate any studies which
specifically deal with issues of self-confidence, intelligence, or
social development resulting from the relative age effect.

There are sources which make peripheral mention of self-esteem issues,
such as this one:

"Stanwyck (1983) indicates school, peer relations, emotional
well-being, and physical self-perception are the primary content
categories for adolescent self-esteem. Additional research has tended
to support this relationship between school and selfesteem (Howard, &
Jensen, 1999; Thompson, Barnsley, Roger, & Dyck, 1999). Studies that
have examined the relative age effect have shown that children who are
in age-disadvantaged positions with regard to the other children in
their grade are less likely to perform well in school and are more
likely to commit suicide. It is asserted this inability to perform as
well as their peer counterparts impacted their confidence and
self-esteem resulting in feelings such as apathy, hopelessness and
depression (Thompson et al., 1999)."

http://etd-submit.etsu.edu/etd/theses/available/etd-0406101-120954/unrestricted/blevins0426.pdf

Perhaps another Researcher will have better luck in finding what you
need. If you are performing your own searches, I suggest using the
keyphrase "relative age effect," which appears to be a widely-used
term describing this phenomenon.

~pinkfreud

Just a few comments based on what I remember hearing in the past.
Maybe this can give a researcher a start. Younger children tend to
have softer bones, less strength, less developed brains (even once
they are old enough to be in grade school), and less developed social
skills. Many things change at just about every stage of childhood.
It's more a matter of the extent and speed of the change and wether a
study was accurate enough to demonstrate a statistically signifigant
difference between children of different ages who participate in the
same activities, than a matter of whether there is a difference.

The hypothetical children in your example will not work, at least in
Idaho.

To enter the 1st grade, a child must be six-years old on or before the
1st of September.  The child born on January 1 will be six by the 1st
of September, while the child born December 31st of the same year will
only be five, and therefore not eligible to enter the 1st grade.  They
will always be a grade apart, barring any premature advancement or
being held back.

I'm not sure what the specific dates are for other states, but I
suspect they are similar.

- ddelphi

ddelphi

In my mind the actual dates are not the issue.  Regardless if it’s Jan
1st or September 1st...there will always be 1 year development
difference between the two extremes in the same class.

To take your example...The questions would simply replace January 1
with September 1st and December 31 with August 31st.  The child born
who is born on August 31st cannot enter school as that child does not
meet the September 1st criteria and therefore will have to wait till
the following year to enter school...but a child that is born a day
later on September 1st does meet the criteria and therefore starts
school and will essentially be a year less developed than the further
extreme.

In my mind...actual dates are not the issue...it’s the fact that there
will always be a 1 year difference from extreme to extreme.