Abstract - Measuring the Social and Emotional Skills of Hispanic American Students in an Afterschool Karate Program
Background. The social and emotional learning skills of children play an important role in their development. These skills include persistence, self-control, and social competence. The lack of these skills can often be a predictor of future criminality and antisocial behavior. Aggressiveness in youth plays a key role in violence among juveniles.
Problem and aim. The purpose of this quasi-experimental, one-group, pre-test/post-test design study, was twofold. First, it examined the effects of traditional martial arts training on the social and emotional learning skills of persistence, self-control and social competence of students within a structured afterschool setting. Secondly, it investigated the effects of the same training on the ability to resolve problems with peers without becoming aggressive.
Materials and methods. The research subjects consist of 57 predominantly Hispanic students (ages 5-11) enrolled in an afterschool program at Tiger and Dragon Youth Center, throughout the 2018-19 academic school year. This program is in Miami-Dade County and teaches the traditional martial art of Kenpo Karate. The instrument used was the Child Trends Socio-Emotional Teacher’s Survey.
Results. Due to the means of the two tests (pre and post-test) and the direction of the t-value, we can conclude that there was a statistically significant improvement in all three testing categories (i.e., persistence, self-control and social competence) and a statistically significant improvement in the “resolved problems with peers without becoming aggressive” test scores.
Conclusion. Martial arts instruction serving as the cornerstone of an afterschool program, may prove to be an effective treatment approach going forward.