Drexel University College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA 19129, USA.
Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2009 Oct 14;3(1):32. doi: 10.1186/1753-2000-3-32.
Martial arts studios for children market their services as providing mental health outcomes such as self-esteem, self-confidence, concentration, and self-discipline. It appears that many parents enroll their children in martial arts in hopes of obtaining such outcomes. The current study used the data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten class of 1998-1999, to assess the effects of martial arts upon such outcomes as rated by classroom teachers.
The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study used a multistage probability sampling design to gather a sample representative of U.S. children attending kindergarten beginning 1998. We made use of data collected in the kindergarten, 3rd grade, and 5th grade years. Classroom behavior was measured by a rating scale completed by teachers; participation in martial arts was assessed as part of a parent interview. The four possible combinations of participation and nonparticipation in martial arts at time 1 and time 2 for each analysis were coded into three dichotomous variables; the set of three variables constituted the measure of participation studied through regression. Multiple regression was used to estimate the association between martial arts participation and change in classroom behavior from one measurement occasion to the next. The change from kindergarten to third grade was studied as a function of martial arts participation, and the analysis was replicated studying behavior change from third grade to fifth grade. Cohen's f2 effect sizes were derived from these regressions.
The martial arts variable failed to show a statistically significant effect on behavior, in either of the regression analyses; in fact, the f2 effect size for martial arts was 0.000 for both analyses. The 95% confidence intervals for regression coefficients for martial arts variables have upper and lower bounds that are all close to zero. The analyses not only fail to reject the null hypothesis, but also render unlikely a population effect size that differs greatly from zero.
The data from the ECLS-K fail to support enrolling children in martial arts to improve mental health outcomes as measured by classroom teachers.
儿童武术工作室将其服务宣传为提供心理健康结果，例如自尊、自信、专注力和自律。似乎许多家长希望通过让孩子参加武术来获得这些结果。本研究使用了 1998-1999 年幼儿园班级的早期儿童纵向研究的数据，来评估武术对课堂教师评价的此类结果的影响。
早期儿童纵向研究采用多阶段概率抽样设计，以收集参加 1998 年开始上幼儿园的美国儿童的样本。我们利用在幼儿园、三年级和五年级收集的数据。课堂行为通过教师完成的量表进行测量；参与武术的情况作为家长访谈的一部分进行评估。对于每次分析，第一时间和第二时间参与和不参与武术的四种可能组合被编码为三个二分变量；这三个变量集构成了通过回归研究的参与度衡量标准。多元回归用于估计武术参与度与从一次测量到下一次的课堂行为变化之间的关联。从幼儿园到三年级的变化作为武术参与的函数进行研究，并复制分析研究从三年级到五年级的行为变化。从这些回归中得出了科恩的 f2 效应大小。
武术变量在这两个回归分析中都没有显示出统计学上显著的效果；实际上，武术的 f2 效应大小在这两个分析中都是 0.000。武术变量的回归系数的 95%置信区间的上限和下限都非常接近零。这些分析不仅没有拒绝零假设，而且还使得与零有很大差异的总体效应大小不太可能出现。
ECLS-K 的数据不支持让孩子参加武术来提高课堂教师衡量的心理健康结果。
