The Effect of Attributional Style Training on Improving General Health in A Group of Retired High School

IntroductionHealth in different stages of life, from childhood to adulthood, has an important role in human life and each person who is in good condition can reach the aging process. One of the important events of aging is retirement. For most people, retirement is not a stressor of crucial importance or a life crisis. In fact, retirement is stressful for one third of all retirees and it can damage their physical and psychological health. Retirees, who have poor health, not only have not positive attitude toward retirement, but also have negative evaluations about retirement. Retirees’ personal attitude and attributional style of retirement specified that this stage for retirees is enjoyable and it increases their mental health or has harmful effect on their mental health. In this regard, research has shown attributional style types of life events and behavior of people can affect their physical and psychological health. Attributional theory focuses on how people explain behaviors and outcomes for themselves, as well as others. Attributional theory studies personal perception, event perception, attitude change, treatment interventions, and self-awareness. Reattributional training helps to challenge incompatible spontaneous attributions. Also, reattributional training reduces depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms and increase function.Research questionThe purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of attributional style training on general health of retired high school teachers in Esfahan. On this basis, it is assumed that attributional style training increases general health and reduce depression, Social Dysfunction, anxiety and somatic symptoms of retired high school teachers.MethodIn this research quasi experimental design was used with two experimental and control groups. Independent variables include eight sessions of group attributional style training and dependent variable was general health that measured before and after the implementation of the independent variable. The statistical population was retired high school teachers in Esfahan in 1384 s.c. (2005-6). At first, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) was administered to one hundred and fifty retired high school teachers, thirty subjects who had less general health were selected and randomly assigned to two groups. One was the experimental group (N=15), the other was the control group (N=15). Then, the structured attributional style group training was instructed in eight weekly one-hour sessions. Methods of training were direct (face to face methods, lecture, group discussion) and indirect (through providing educational booklets). At last, the General Health Questionnaire was again administered as the post-test. Tool was General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). The GHQ is a measure of current mental health. The scale asks whether the respondent has experienced a particular symptom or behavior recently. GHQ-28 consists of four subscales labeled as: somatic symptoms, anxiety-insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression. Each subscale includes 7 items. Each item has 4 levels of response options (less than usual, no more than usual, rather more than usual, or much more than usual). The most common scoring methods are original scoring (0-0-1-1) and Likert scoring styles (0-1-2-3). The research showed that validity level of general health questionnaire is very satisfactory and can be used for psychological research.ResultsThe results showed that post-test mean scores of general health, depression, social dysfunction, anxiety, insomnia and Somatic of the experimental group is lower than the control group and lower scores indicate higher health. The data was analyzed by ANOVA. Pre-test scores and age is controlled in all analysis. The results of analysis of covariance indicated that the attributional style training increased the general health of the training group as compared to the control group. Also, the attributional style training reduced depression, social dysfunction, anxiety and insomnia, and somatic symptoms.DiscussionDifficulties in retirement may increase the need for mental health interventions. Because poor health decreases positive attitude toward retirement and increases negative evaluations of retirement, today, some world large institutions consider retirement preparation programs. Retirement planning increase positive attitudes toward retirement. In this study, we were investigated effectiveness of attributional style training on general health of retired high school teachers in Esfahan. The results imply that the attributional style training is able to increase the general health and reduced depression, social dysfunction, anxiety and insomnia, and somatic symptoms. The results of this study were consistent with previous research in other countries. In general, participation in group meetings of attributional style training can cause that participant gain more self knowledge toward their thoughts. Therefore, they avoid negative attributional style and improve their mental health. To future researchers is recommended that mental health intervention programs be performed for those who have not retired yet and its effects study on increasing mental health retirements. Also, further researches are needed to substantiate results of this research in other communities. According to the findings of this study, it is suggested that attributional style intervention programs can be used to improve the general health of retired high school teachers.