Perception of Self-Efficacy and Health-Related Behavior in Context of Taekwon-Do Sport Camps
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
sustainability-1175310
The present manuscript is a cross sectional study with a sample of 58 subjects whose aim is to expand the knowledge on the subject matter of the relations between behaviour that is geared towards health and the feeling of effectiveness in the context of Taekwondo summer camps.
I fell this manuscript does not meet the requirements to be accepted for a journal such as Sustainability , it must be improved in all sections.
The abstract should be revised, the introduction improved with more references to support the writing. The methods are not well described and the data analysis does not support the conclusions found by the authors. There is no control group and other confounding factors have not been analysed so we cannot be sure of the conclusions drawn by the authors.
The analysis and the wording of the discussion and conclusions should be revised.
I have added the comments in the PDF
All the best in your submission!
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We are very grateful for your time and energy to review our paper. We extended all sections and make more clear all sections by adding some paragraphs with better explanation of the aim of the study as well as presented sections.
Indicated sentences which was lacking references were added accordingly to hints presented by reviewers, as this was also point out by others.
We believe after additional explanation our data analysis will be more clear. The description of the methods has been expanded by providing the value of Cronbach’s alpha and other information relating to the aim of the research. Supplementation has been carried out, which involves a more precise outline of the research tools.
On the basis of contemporary knowledge and available literature, the justification of the indicator applied has been illustrated in terms of the feeling of the “generalized” personal effectiveness with regard to the previous personal experiences. We agreed that the limitation of this study is lack of control group. But our conclusions are based on the cluster analysis. We adopted the model of statistical analysis with caution, in terms of the amount of data in our possession, which facilitated the familiarization with the dependencies, namely k-average (k-means clustering). After 10 iterations and F value we can conclude, that algorithm and division of the participants was valid. Table 3 and 4 is referring to these analysis, explaining factors and strength of the analysis. Therefore, instead of having control group, our analysis divide tested participants based on psychological indicators, then results was compared to attended camps, which shows, that fewer participants placed in the cluster 2 shown higher mean of number of attended camps alongside higher self-efficacy value. Thanks to this fact, it became possible to acquire the result and information identified by our team in the research conducted on these concentrations (clusters) relating to how they differ from each other in terms of each dimension formulated in the subject matter of this paper (the generalized feeling of effectiveness, health behaviour and Taekwon-do camps). As noted by the Reviewer, the acquired findings do not authorize us to generalize in terms of the entire population. The significance of the findings may be interpreted as the increase in the importance of the arguments in favour of the treatment of training camps away from home as such a form of activity that may be beneficial for health behaviour and the feeling of effectiveness in the following two ways: The first way is, to a certain degree, such a sports trip that may constitute a way to verify the effects of regular training and a fight against your own weaknesses. Between the feeling of effectiveness and health behaviour there are positive connections, such as the ability to make intentions come true (e.g. a diet), persistence in the execution of plans (e.g. avoiding certain favoured ingredients that do not serve a healthy diet). The second argument relates to the fact that training camps away from home may be treated as such forms of activity that lead to the co-creation of the elements of a lifestyle that combine the social development of practitioners, while also becoming familiar with the culture of the region and development in the sphere of physical culture.
We will try our best to adjust language and conclusions on the appropriate level to meet the criteria and standard of this journal.
All suggestions placed in the PDF file was addressed, we are very grateful for your effort.
Reviewer 2 Report
It is not clear the relevance of the study, or even the “message” authors want to provide – the “idea” that taekwondo is an interest practice to promote self-efficacy, or the “idea” that martial arts tourism (and not the practice) is relevant to practitioners’ health? Moreover, the methods are not clear, and some aspects need to be improved, and some conclusions are not possible to be stated based on the analysis/methods performed.
Abstract
- Can be improved, presenting more clearly the results.
Introduction
- There are many sentences without references. Please, check it and insert the appropriate references (the same happens at the discussion section).
- The arguments pointed out by authors to present the relevance of the study are not strong enough.
- The study sampled athletes, so how is it possible to generalize results based on athletes to the general population?
Methods
- Was the study approved by an ethical committee?
- Authors could provide more information about the instruments used (for example, what are the behaviours considered in the HBI?). Furthermore, which information comprised the auxiliary data?
- The statistical analysis should be presented in more details. For example: did authors test the data for normality distribution? The ANOVA was used to test differences between which groups? The cluster analysis was performed using which variables?
Results
- Authors reported: “The Generalized Self-Efficacy GSE) value increased with the declared number of summer camps that the individuals attended during their practice history” – how this information (declared number of summer camps) was obtained? Once more, it is necessary more information at methods section.
Discussion
- The discussion section needs to be much deeper.
- How can authors say that “we can assume that Taekwondo ITF practice is beneficial for developing a high perception of self-efficacy and healthy behaviour”, if they did not compare the group against a control one?
- The conclusions are not supported by the results.
- What are the implications of the results of the study?
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for this detailed review, we will try our best to make this work better and suitable for publication. As you made separate parts as comments, we wish to address one issue per time.
Issue #1
Abstract
- Can be improved, presenting more clearly the results.
Response:
Results was extended:
“The analysed fighters who participated in the research in the majority of the sports meetings declared a higher level of the feeling of effectiveness (p<0.001). Cluster analysis emerged two groups with significant difference between self-efficacy (mean value of 20.05 points in contrast to 33.93 points in the second group). The group with higher psychological indices values attended in higher amount of summer camps during their practice history.”
Issue #2:
Introduction
- There are many sentences without references. Please, check it and insert the appropriate references (the same happens at the discussion section).
Response:
Proper references was added in both sections.
- The arguments pointed out by authors to present the relevance of the study are not strong enough.
Response:
Following fragments were added:
“From the perspective of martial arts, biopsychosocial concept of human health and development is included in the General Theory of Fighting Arts (GTFA). This theory extends understanding of martial arts as sport activity by adding humanistic aspects, therefore cultural and social context of the practice. Overall, GTFA is a sum of humanistic, social and cultural issues with philosophical, cultural and biological ones extended by sport science with emphasis on martial art sciences.”
And
“Phenomenon of training camps are part of one more aspect of General Theory of Martial Arts, which was mentioned above. Martial arts tourism is an activity which includes traveling to learn or teach martial arts. These trips are motivated by practicing, studying, teaching or promoting martial art. Therefore activities such as training camps, even though could not be related to any special place related to martial arts, are special activities with the purpose of practice.”
- The study sampled athletes, so how is it possible to generalize results based on athletes to the general population?
All conclusions are referred to the Taekwon-do practitioners. We hope that additional fragments changes context enough to make it more clear.
Issue # 3
Methods
- Was the study approved by an ethical committee?
Section was extended:
The test protocol are meeting the criteria of Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans. All subjects in the study were informed of the testing procedures and voluntarily participated in the data collection.
- Authors could provide more information about the instruments used (for example, what are the behaviours considered in the HBI?). Furthermore, which information comprised the auxiliary data?
Response:
Section was clarified:
The Health Behaviour Inventory consists of 24 statements used to assess health behaviour in four subscales: proper dietary habits (PDH), prophylactic behaviour (PB), health-related practices (HRP) and a positive attitude (PA).
- The statistical analysis should be presented in more details. For example: did authors test the data for normality distribution? The ANOVA was used to test differences between which groups? The cluster analysis was performed using which variables?
Response:
The description of the methods has been expanded by providing the value of Cronbach’s alpha and other information relating to the aim of the research. Supplementation has been carried out, which involves a more precise outline of the research tools.
Group was composed of both genders – males and females (table 1).
There is a fragment:
The ANOVA analysis for the specific indicators and overall values did not reveal significant differences between the genders with p = 0.858.
However this information was not suitable for placing in separate tables, so we only limit it to his short note. Cluster analysis was composed of variables from both psychological questionnaire tools presented in the table 3. We adopted the model of statistical analysis with caution, in terms of the amount of data in our possession, which facilitated the familiarization with the dependencies, namely k-average (k-means clustering). Thanks to the classification algorithm applied, we acquired the required aggregation of data following iterations. On this basis, we may state that the similarity to other subjects within one cluster is higher than in the case of subjects in the second cluster identified (Upton G, Cook I. A Dictionary of Statistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2008). The acquired magnitude of value, namely, F, which is derived from the analysis of the variance executed in each dimension, became only an indicator in our paper in terms of how much a particular dimension discriminates the cluster. This information has been presented in Table 4. Alongside the findings of the analysis on variances, which are part of the standardized set of findings from the analysis of the clusters, the descriptive characteristics of clusters 1 and 2 have also been presented (Table 3). Thanks to this fact, it became possible to acquire the result and information identified by our team in the research conducted on these concentrations (clusters) relating to how they differ from each other in terms of each dimension formulated in the subject matter of this paper (the generalized feeling of effectiveness, health behaviour and Taekwon-do camps).
Issue # 4
Results
- Authors reported: “The Generalized Self-Efficacy GSE) value increased with the declared number of summer camps that the individuals attended during their practice history” – how this information (declared number of summer camps) was obtained? Once more, it is necessary more information at methods section.
Response:
Following fragment was added:
Additional information (age) were collected with an information about number of Taekwon-do summer camps that practitioners attended to in their lifetime practice.
Issue# 5
Discussion
- How can authors say that “we can assume that Taekwon-do ITF practice is beneficial for developing a high perception of self-efficacy and healthy behaviour”, if they did not compare the group against a control one?
Response:
Following fragment was added:
The limitation of this study is lack of control group. But our conclusions are based on the cluster analysis. After 10 iterations, that algorithm and division of the participants was valid. Table 3 and 4 is referring to these analysis, explaining factors and strength of the analysis. Therefore, instead of having control group, our analysis divide tested participants based on psychological indicators, then results was compared to attended camps, which shows, that fewer participants placed in the cluster 2 shown higher mean of number of attended camps alongside higher self-efficacy value.
Following fragments was added:
- The discussion section needs to be much deeper.
“We are not putting forward a radical thesis of the number of training camps in our work (as an independent variable) that has an impact on such variables as the feeling of effectiveness and health behaviour ( as dependent variables). The deliberations were conducted in a much more cautious manner with the application of the method which is recommended in such cases when the data may be defined as out of focus. Due to this fact, we avail of such definitions in our work as the differentiation of the findings among the people who participated in the training camp many times. Likewise, for this reason in our calculations the findings were analysed and subsequently presented in the tables that illustrate the maximization of the variances within the cluster and between the clusters (Table 4). The acquired findings do not authorize us to generalize in terms of the entire population. The significance of the findings may be interpreted as the increase in the importance of the arguments in favour of the treatment of training camps away from home as such a form of activity that may be beneficial for health behaviour and the feeling of effectiveness in the following two ways: The first way is, to a certain degree, such a sports trip that may constitute a way to verify the effects of regular training and a fight against your own weaknesses. Between the feeling of effectiveness and health behaviour there are positive connections, such as the ability to make intentions come true ( e.g. a diet), persistence in the execution of plans (e.g. avoiding certain favoured ingredients that do not serve a healthy diet).The second argument relates to the fact that training camps away from home may be treated as such forms of activity that lead to the co-creation of the elements of a lifestyle that combine the social development of practitioners, while also becoming familiar with the culture of the region and development in the sphere of physical culture.”
“Martial art tourism and training camps could be held in the cradle of Taekwon-do – North Korea regions [40] for sole purpose of training, to the academic camps of South Korea for academic development [41]. Most studies about martial arts tourism refers to expert level practitioners and some of them have academic degrees. This is one of the first study in the subject that contain larger number of participants. This experimental evidence about psychological values of martial art tourism is confirmatory factor about a humanistic nature of martial arts and supports general theory of fighting arts.”
#########
There are no corresponding studies that we can refer to in the context of martial arts, therefore we base our discussion and conclusion on the induction logic. Adding the limitation about control group may ease the impression that we tried to talk big about little amount of evidence that we provide.
- The conclusions are not supported by the results.
Conclusions were reworked in the following manner:
Attendance in the organised forms such as summer training camps, therefore longer practice, is associated with the increased self-efficacy level of Taekwon-do athletes.
The obtained results have shown that the mental indicators are increased due to longer Taekwon-do practice, therefore continuous practice of the martial arts could be used as a means of shaping positive health behaviour. Therefore, Taekwon-do practice has a positive influence on all aspects of the biopsychosocial model of health. It is possible to presume and indicate certain premises in order to assume that the people who decide to join a training camp that is away from their place of abode, particularly the people who participate multiple times in such a training camp, to a certain extent agree to a certain regime in terms of undertaking an intensified effort, self-discipline and the continuation of joint work in conditions away from home. Participation in additional forms of activity such as training camps is associated with becoming familiar with new places, people, elements of the culture of the region. In this sense, it is possible to state that participation in these forms of activity, particularly on a regular basis and more frequently than a one-off, is simultaneously a way of spending free time which creates a certain active lifestyle. Martial arts tourism in the sports camps dimension could be perceived as a method of shaping the proper attitude towards challenges, problem-solving tasks and the mental capacity to cope with failures, which are all an expression of self-efficacy.
- What are the implications of the results of the study?
We believe that the answer is at the end of the discussion section now:
Most studies about martial arts tourism refers to expert level practitioners and some of them have academic degrees. This is one of the first study in the subject that contain larger number of participants. This experimental evidence about psychological values of martial art tourism is confirmatory factor about a humanistic nature of martial arts and supports general theory of fighting arts.
#####
We does not imply any kind of intervention nor therapy. This study have exploratory value as knowledge extension.
We hope that we meet your expectation with response and correction and in the current form this work could be published in the journal. Thank you again for your kindness.
Reviewer 3 Report
I recommend that the aim mentioned in the introduction, at the end, be rewritten, focused on the research topic. The context is not understood.
Also in the introduction I recommend you to present several aspects regarding the specialized knowledge focused on the research topic, making references to previous studies.
In the Subjects section, I recommend you to specify their background, regarding the previous experience in ITF.
In the Protocol section I recommend you to mention the application of the questionnaires, the period, the inclusion and exclusion criteria, etc.
In the results section I recommend you to mention The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient, in order to validate the questionnaires.
In the discussion section you refer to the objectives of the camp, I recommend you to mention them. The first paragraph is too generalized, I recommend rewriting.
In the second paragraph you mention - The presented results correspond with other studies, and do not associate this statement with any bibliographic index. I recommend completing.
I recommend completing the Discussions section, making correlations between the results of this study and the previous ones, by comparing the results.
I recommend you to mention the limitations and strengths.
In the conclusions section make the following statement - Undertaking long-term effort and practice as a consequence of years of practice is a demanding mental task. I recommend that the conclusions focus on the results of the study. Nothing has been mentioned before about the aspects related to the ITF practice period.
I consider that this article needs a major revision and then resubmission for publication.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
First of all, thank you for your time and effort to make all hints and corrections in our work. We tried our best to adjust our paper accordingly to your comments before making resubmission. As your review is structured, we will follow paragraph and response protocol.
Issue #1
I recommend that the aim mentioned in the introduction, at the end, be rewritten, focused on the research topic. The context is not understood.
Response:
Proper extension and description was added.
“Hence, the aim of this study is to obtain knowledge about the possible relation between health-related behaviour and the generalized self-perceived efficiency in the context of martial art tourism in the form of training summer camps.”
The notion of the research undertaken and the paper presented relates to the theory (and previous partial ascertainment’s of our team) which illustrated the fact that people practice Taekwondo regularly despite the fact that they have relatively high levels of feelings of generalized effectiveness (General Self-Efficacy Scale ), while also displaying a relatively high concentration of health behaviour which is beneficial for the maintenance and development of health, albeit they are not a completely homogenous group in this regard.
Issue#2
Also in the introduction I recommend you to present several aspects regarding the specialized knowledge focused on the research topic, making references to previous studies.
Response:
Fragments about martial art tourism and its theoretical basis – General Theory of Fighting Arts was added alongside with proper references.
From the perspective of martial arts, biopsychosocial concept of human health and development is included in the General Theory of Fighting Arts (GTFA). This theory extends understanding of martial arts as sport activity by adding humanistic aspects, therefore cultural and social context of the practice. Overall, GTFA is a sum of humanistic, social and cultural issues with philosophical, cultural and biological ones extended by sport science with emphasis on martial art sciences [16].
Phenomenon of training camps are part of one more aspect of General Theory of Martial Arts, which was mentioned above. Martial arts tourism is an activity which includes traveling to learn or teach martial arts [19,20]. These trips are motivated by practicing, studying, teaching or promoting martial art [21]. Therefore activities such as training camps, even though could not be related to any special place related to martial arts, are special activities with the purpose of practice.
Issue #3
In the Subjects section, I recommend you to specify their background, regarding the previous experience in ITF.
Response:
Only age and number of attended camps data were collected beside selected psychological questionaries, so adding this data is impossible. However, correlation analysis did not reveal any relations between psychological indices and age, therefore their practice time may also be not relevant.
Issue #4
In the Protocol section I recommend you to mention the application of the questionnaires, the period, the inclusion and exclusion criteria, etc.
Response:
Data gathering process last one training season. Study group was composed of athletes from different clubs and cities, who met at the Taekwon-do seminars. The only inclusion criteria was being a member of Taekwon-do club and be an adult (age over 18 years old).
Issue #5
In the results section I recommend you to mention The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient, in order to validate the questionnaires.
Response:
Following fragment was added: “The internal validity of the Health Behaviour Inventory was established based on the Cronbach alpha coefficient, whose value was 0.85 for the overall Inventory and from 0.6 to 0.65 for separate categories.”
Issue #6
In the discussion section you refer to the objectives of the camp, I recommend you to mention them. The first paragraph is too generalized, I recommend rewriting. In the second paragraph you mention - The presented results correspond with other studies, and do not associate this statement with any bibliographic index. I recommend completing.
Response:
Generalised sentences from 1st paragraphs was deleted and reference supporting statement was added.
The statement you mentioned is supported by references at the end of the paragraph with works:
Mouloud, K.; El-Kadder, B.A. Self-efficacy, Achievement motivation and Anxiety of Elite Athletes. IOSR J. Sport. Phys. Educ. 2016, 03, 45–48, doi: 10.9790/6737-03044548.
Beauchamp, M.R. Efficacy Beliefs Within Relational and Group Contexts in Sport. In Social Psychology in Sport.; Human Kinetics: Champaign, IL, US, 2007; pp. 181–193 ISBN 0-7360-5780-3 (Hardcover); 978-0-7360-5780-6 (Hardcover).
Bong, M. Academic Motivation in Self-Efficacy, Task Value, Achievement Goal Orientations, and Attributional Beliefs. J. Educ. Res. 2004, 97, 287–298, doi: 10.3200/JOER.97.6.287-298.
Issue #7
I recommend completing the Discussions section, making correlations between the results of this study and the previous ones, by comparing the results. I recommend you to mention the limitations and strengths.
Response:
Following fragment was added:
“This study did not specify the nature of the training camps and trips destinations. Martial art tourism and training camps could be held in the cradle of Taekwon-do – North Korea regions [40] for sole purpose of training, to the academic camps of South Korea for academic development [41]. Most studies about martial arts tourism refers to expert level practitioners and some of them have academic degrees. This is one of the first study in the subject that contain larger number of participants. This experimental evidence about psychological values of martial art tourism is confirmatory factor about a humanistic nature of martial arts and supports general theory of fighting arts.”
“The limitation of this study is lack of control group. But our conclusions are based on the cluster analysis. After 10 iterations, that algorithm and division of the participants was valid. Table 3 and 4 is referring to these analysis, explaining factors and strength of the analysis. Therefore, instead of having control group, our analysis divide tested participants based on psychological indicators, then results was compared to attended camps, which shows, that fewer participants placed in the cluster 2 shown higher mean of number of attended camps alongside higher self-efficacy value. We are not putting forward a radical thesis of the number of training camps in our work (as an independent variable) that has an impact on such variables as the feeling of effectiveness and health behaviour ( as dependent variables). The deliberations were conducted in a much more cautious manner with the application of the method which is recommended in such cases when the data may be defined as out of focus. Due to this fact, we avail of such definitions in our work as the differentiation of the findings among the people who participated in the training camp many times. Likewise, for this reason in our calculations the findings were analysed and subsequently presented in the tables that illustrate the maximization of the variances within the cluster and between the clusters (Table 4). The acquired findings do not authorize us to generalize in terms of the entire population. The significance of the findings may be interpreted as the increase in the importance of the arguments in favour of the treatment of training camps away from home as such a form of activity that may be beneficial for health behaviour and the feeling of effectiveness in the following two ways: The first way is, to a certain degree, such a sports trip that may constitute a way to verify the effects of regular training and a fight against your own weaknesses. Between the feeling of effectiveness and health behaviour there are positive connections, such as the ability to make intentions come true ( e.g. a diet), persistence in the execution of plans (e.g. avoiding certain favoured ingredients that do not serve a healthy diet).The second argument relates to the fact that training camps away from home may be treated as such forms of activity that lead to the co-creation of the elements of a lifestyle that combine the social development of practitioners, while also becoming familiar with the culture of the region and development in the sphere of physical culture.”
Issue #8
In the conclusions section make the following statement - Undertaking long-term effort and practice as a consequence of years of practice is a demanding mental task. I recommend that the conclusions focus on the results of the study. Nothing has been mentioned before about the aspects related to the ITF practice period.
Response:
There was following fragment in the second paragraph, which refers to the natural consequence – there is one summer camp per year – therefore the more camps person attends to, the longer practice lasts:
“The sense of the effectiveness, as well as other aspects of personal development involves a certain amount of effort. Participation in more camps means longer training experience. More training experience does not always mean higher scores in the competitions, but long-term practice demands certain fortitude from the individual.”
It is possible to presume and indicate certain premises in order to assume that the people who decide to join a training camp that is away from their place of abode, particularly the people who participate multiple times in such a training camp, to a certain extent agree to a certain regime in terms of undertaking an intensified effort, self-discipline and the continuation of joint work in conditions away from home. Participation in additional forms of activity such as training camps is associated with becoming familiar with new places, people, elements of the culture of the region. In this sense, it is possible to state that participation in these forms of activity, particularly on a regular basis and more frequently than a one-off, is simultaneously a way of spending free time which creates a certain active lifestyle.
Thank you very much for your review, we hope that our changes made this paper more suitable for publishing in the journal.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have improved the manuscript significantly. They have justified their statistical analysis and better worded the findings. Despite this, the study has not been reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee, in addition to the bias in obtaining some of the variables. I leave this aspect under the editor's decission.
Minor: revise the p values p=0.000 since this mathematical figure does not exist. It is suggested to change to p<0.001
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We would like to thank you very much for acknowledging improvement of our manuscript, we did what we could at this point in dressing issues pointed out in the previous review. We added the minor correction to the p value indicator – thank you for your keen eye and insight. Thank you for giving us a chance and possibility of reconsideration of this paper by Editor.
With all the gratitude, Yours sincerely
Reviewer 3 Report
No comments
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
With warm the gratitude, we would like to thank you very much for positive opinion about our work. We are delighted for opinion. We are pleased to see that we made satisfying changes and you are willing to accept our paper for further publishing process.
With all the gratitude, Yours sincerely
