Promoting self-regulation through school-based martial arts training

This study by Lakes and Hoyt examined whether school-based Tae Kwon Do training improves self-regulation in children, using a self-regulation framework spanning cognitive, affective, and physical domains. In a randomized design, 207 kindergarten through 5th-grade students were assigned by homeroom to either a martial arts intervention or a traditional physical education comparison group. After three months, the martial arts group showed significantly greater gains than the comparison group in cognitive self-regulation, affective self-regulation, prosocial behavior, classroom conduct, and mental math performance. A significant Group x Gender interaction emerged for cognitive self-regulation and classroom conduct, with boys showing larger improvements than girls. The authors discuss possible explanations for this gender interaction and the implications of specific martial arts training components for building self-regulation in school-age children.