Positive Youth Development (PYD) in Martial Arts Activities: Literature Review

Several literatures provide indications on the results of their research that martial arts activities can have a positive effect on the development of adolescents. However, martial arts activities that have been running still do not reveal programs that lead to positive youth development. Apart from that, there is still uncertainty regarding the martial arts training program which is still focused solely on achieving achievements. This study reveals the contribution or role of martial arts activities by providing an overview, and explaining the results of the latest research on martial arts activities for positive adolescent development. Literature data collection techniques were taken using a systematic computer search consisting of several journal articles and dissertations, as well as the results of searching data manually. Several articles were eliminated which were then focused on the 17 articles used in this study. The results show that martial arts activities have had a major impact on positive adolescent development in recent years. The main topics in several research results in general are about prosocial behavior, antisocial behavior, aggression and resilience. There is strong agreement among researchers about the potential of martial arts activities for positive adolescent development. In addition, the discussion in several studies shows clearly that the main influence in martial arts activities is closely related to how the trainers make a strong contribution in providing understanding and also the teaching style used in martial arts activities.