Microsoft Word Training the body and mind Examining psychological correlates of Taekwondo docx

Taekwondo and Wellbeing 
To better understand whether Taekwondo training affects individuals’ wellbeing, it is 
valuable to study variables that have received minimal attention in the context of Taekwondo, 
yet display positive relationships with other martial arts and exercise activities.
Increases in self-esteem have been connected to exercise in both theoretical and empirical 
work. The Exercise Self-Esteem Model (EXSEM; Sonstroem, Harlow, & Jacobs, 1994; 
Sonstroem & Morgan, 1989) conceptualizes self-esteem as a hierarchical construct, with global 
self-esteem subsuming several more specific subdomains (e.g., academic; physical).
Participation in regular exercise influences the subdomain of physical self-worth, which can be 
further broken down into body attractiveness, body strength, body condition, and sports 
competence (Fox & Corbin, 1989). Exercise facilitates changes at these more specific levels, 
which ultimately generalize and influence global levels of self-esteem. 
Several empirical studies have provided support for this model (e.g., Li et al., 2002).
Moreover, increases in self-esteem are often associated with a variety of exercise activities 
(e.g., Taspinar, Aslan, Agbuga, & Taspinar, 2014), including martial arts participation.
Notably, Taekwondo training has been positively associated with overall self-concept and with 
physical self-concept in female undergraduate students. Previous research has also 
demonstrated improvements in self-esteem (Lee, Lee, & Woo, 2010; Li et al., 2002) and all 
four subdomains of physical self-worth (Li et al., 2002) in elderly individuals as a function of 
Tai Chi interventions. In Karate students, self-esteem levels are positively correlated with 
higher belt rank (i.e., more experience with the martial art; Richman & Rehberg, 1986).
In contrast to this limited, but encouraging evidence, Foster (1997) found that self-esteem 
levels were unrelated to Aikido involvement, and Lakes and Hoyt (2004) found no 
improvements in self-esteem levels of 4th and 5th-grade children as a function of Taekwondo 
training. Thus, despite the large body of research supporting the association between exercise 
and self-esteem, the relationship between martial arts and self-esteem, especially in the context 
of Taekwondo, remains equivocal and in need of further exploration. 
Body image perceptions are theoretically tied to self-esteem in the Exercise Self-Esteem 
Model through the physical self-worth subdomain of body attractiveness, and empirical work 
has demonstrated that body dissatisfaction predicts low self-esteem (Tiggemann, 2005).
Multifarious types of exercise can lead to improvements in body image perceptions (e.g., 
Hausenblaus & Fallon, 2006) including yoga, resistance training (e.g., Taspinar et al., 2014), 
and dance (e.g. Hös, 2005). Given the respective connections among physical self-concept, 
physical self-worth, Taekwondo (Finkenberg, 1990), and Tai Chi (Li et al., 2002), a 
relationship may exist between Taekwondo and body image perceptions. However, this 
relationship remains unexplored. 
Self-esteem is also associated with more general indices of health and wellbeing. Poor 
self-esteem in adolescence predicts worse mental and physical health in adulthood 
(Trzesniewski et al., 2006), and low self-esteem is found in many forms of mental illness (Fox, 
1999). Importantly, many large scale studies have demonstrated that exercise and physical 
activity are associated with psychological wellbeing (Fox, 1999), including martial arts 
engagement. Improvements in physical and psychological health-related quality of life have 
been observed following a Tai Chi intervention (Lee et al., 2010), and martial artists from a 

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International Journal of Martial Arts 
variety of disciplines scored higher than did non-martial artists on a multidimensional measure 
of health-related quality of life (Draxler, Ostermann, & Honekamp, 2011). It is thus reasonable 
to predict that a relationship exists between Taekwondo and perceived mental and physical 
health, but a paucity of research exists in this area.