The effectiveness of self-Encouragement training on students' psychological toughness and social health

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of self-improvement training on students' psychological toughness and social health.

This quasi-experimental study followed by a two-group pretest-posttest design. The current study had a statistical population constituting of all male six-grade elementary school students in Zahedan in the academic year 2016-2017. To collect data, a corpus of 30 students was selected using a multistage random sampling method. Data collection tools applied to achieve the objectives of carrying out this study were Kiyameri et al. Psychological Hardiness Scale (1998) and Keyes and Shapiro Social Health Inventory (2004). Data were analyzed using both descriptive statistics, like calculating means and standard deviations, and inferential statistics, including a multivariate analysis of covariance.

Results of the analysis of covariance indicated that self-encouragement training was effective in increasing mean scores of the experimental group on social health (P≤0.001) and psychological hardiness (P≤0.005) compared to the control group.

Self-encouragement techniques can be taught to students. These techniques are effective in maintaining their social health and psychological hardiness.