Effects of Spirituality Therapy on General Health in Aggressive Male High School Students

Psychological problems significantly impact individual health in communities, especially teenagers and young adults. One of the most common behavioral disorders among teenagers is aggressive behavior. Compared with the healthy population, numerous studies reported decreased general health in aggressive individuals. Various psychological domains were developed to enhance mental and general health. Spirituality therapy is among the prominent methods to enhance mental and general health. In spirituality therapy, the objective is to use the available capabilities, spiritual motivations, and ethical principles for improving and treating various diseases. Violence and aggression are associated with biopsychological problems and general health. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of group spirituality therapy on general health among aggressive male high school students. 

This quasi–experimental research used a pretest–posttest and a control group design. The study population included all aggressive students with a record of aggressive behavior in the school counseling centers during 2017–2018 (N=136). To obtain the required data for the study, we visited and discussed with school counselors and reviewed the historical records of aggressive students. From this population, 40 subjects with the highest scores of aggression (according to Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992) were selected as the samples and randomly assigned to two groups of experimental and control (n=20/group). Before starting the spirituality therapy course, a pretest was conducted for experimental and control groups by General Health Questionnaire (GHQ–28) (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979). The experimental group participated in 60–min group spiritual therapy sessions for 4 weeks (two days a week); however, the control group received no intervention. After the end of the course, a posttest was conducted for both groups. For analysis data, descriptive statistics (including mean & standard deviation) and inferential statistics, including Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) in SPSS at the significance level of 0.05. 

According to the obtained results, in 20 aggressive students in the control group, the mean±SD general health was measured to be 29.95±14.92 in the pretest and 28.35±15.22 in the posttest. Furthermore, in the 20 aggressive students in the experimental group, the mean±SD general health equaled 29.55±12.08 in the pretest and 31.35±14 in the posttest. The results also indicated that after adjusting the pretest scores, group spirituality therapy significantly increased the general health of aggressive students (p<0.001). Moreover, the effect of group spirituality therapy on improving the general health of aggressive students was computed as 60.8%. Additionally, the experimental group's mean modified posttest scores were 14.19 and less than the control group, i.e., 28.15.

According to the current study findings, group spirituality therapy is an appropriate method for improving the general health of aggressive students. Spirituality therapy can be considered a complementary therapeutic method to prevent students' psychological problems related to aggressive behavior.