Abstract
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and international sport, and its psychosocial benefits for its trainees have been studied extensively. This review aims to systematically assess and meta-analyze the effects of Taekwondo training on sociality, character, etiquette, and school life adjustment. We searched the RISS, NDSL, and KISS electronic databases between January 1985 and December 2019. We also included gray literature, such as theses, in addition to peer-reviewed articles. R software (version 3.6.2, R Core Team, Vienna, Austria) was used to synthesize the effect sizes and perform moderation analyses. Twenty-eight studies (24 cross-sectional and four intervention studies) were included in the final meta-analysis. Significant positive effects of Taekwondo training were found on sociality (MD = 0.266, 95% CI: 0.191 to 0.341), character (MD = 0.446, 95% CI: 0.331–0.560), etiquette (MD = 0.562, 95% CI: 0.500–0.624), and school life adjustment (MD = 0.308, 95% CI: 0.195–0.421). Overall, the findings of this meta-analysis support that Taekwondo can have a positive impact on the psychosocial factors of trainees. Due to several limitations discussed, well-designed RCTs and multiple levels of Taekwondo intervention studies should be conducted in future research to validate the current findings.
Highlights
Taekwondo is an internationally established martial art, included in the OlympicGames, and is practiced today by millions of people in more than 200 countries (International Olympic Committee, 2021)
It is interesting to note that all of the cross-sectional studies included in our meta-analysis reported improvement in social characteristics in general, differences existed among the subfactors of sociality assessed in each individual study
Some studies reported significant correlations between the sociality outcomes of Taekwondo training students and their demographic characteristics, such as the parents’ education and income level [22,25], none of these studies further assessed the effects of Taekwondo on the linkage between socioeconomic status and social development
Summary
Taekwondo is an internationally established martial art, included in the OlympicGames, and is practiced today by millions of people in more than 200 countries (International Olympic Committee, 2021). Despite some controversies regarding its origin and history, Taekwondo is known to have evolved from a form of unarmed military training of ancient kingdoms of the Korean peninsula, including Hwarang, an elite scholar-warrior group of male youth in the Silla kingdom [1]. Though it originated from a fighting system for self-defense, Taekwondo is enjoyed as a sport effective for health promotion and self-discipline, regardless of age and gender. Taekwondo places a significant value in positively affecting practitioners’ behavior and spirit through the training process [3].
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