Relativ ålderseffekt och känsla av sammanhang i Idrott och Hälsa : En kvantitativ studie om sambandet mellan elevers relativa ålder och känsla av sammanhang i Idrott och Hälsa på gymnasieskolan.

Sammanfattning: Purpose of study This quantitative cross-sectional study aimed to explore the relationship and differences between time of birth and students’ Sense of Coherence (SOC) in physical education within the Swedish upper secondary school. Previous research has proven a connection between annual time of birth and success in sports and school, which is termed Relative Age Effect in research and means that relatively older students and athletes possess a higher probability to reach success. The evidence of relative age effects to students’ motivation and grades in school motivated the hypothesis in this study: that there is a correlation between students' time of birth and their SOC in physical education. This is a relationship that has not been proven nor explored earlier. Methodology The collection of data was collected through a web-based questionnaire with 15 questions in total 12 of which related to the assessment of respondents' SOC. The selection consisted of students from four upper secondary schools within the Stockholm area with 394 participating respondents in total, whereof 285 underwent statistical analyses. The survey answers composed the data that was tested via statistical analysis to explore any correlation or variance between time of birth and SOC. Results The statistical analyses could not prove any linear correlation between the two variables. Nor could the analyses prove any significant differences between the students' assessed SOC and time of birth when divided into annual quarters. Explorative follow-up analyses indicated clear differences between the genders with SOC where the boys reported higher levels of SOC compared to the girls. An ANOVA analyses also indicated that birth quarter seemed to have a bigger impact on SOC for girls. Conclusion In conclusion, the study indicated no proof of a correlation between time of birth and SOC and no linear connection between measured SOC and birth quarter. Although, the first quarter is the only quarter that deviates from the connection, from the second to fourth quarter there is a connection indicating lower levels of SOC throughout the year. Further research on this topic is needed to procure a fair perception of this uncharted area of research.