International Journal of School Health
Volume:8 Issue: 4, Autumn 2021

New mutations of COVID-19 and a lack of adequate vaccination necessitate finding certain methods to enhance mental health of adolescents during the pandemic. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on mental health of adolescents during COVID-19 pandemic.

The present research applied an experimental design with pretest and posttest in 2020. The subjects herein included 65 high-school students, randomly divided into the intervention and control groups. The intervention group received three months of intervention based on Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy while the control group performed regular daily activities. Depression, anxiety, and stress were measured using standard questionnaires before and after the intervention as well as three months later. Independent t test and ANCOVA were utilized for data analysis.

At the baseline, 58 students (89.2%) had moderate depression, 37 students (56.9%) had severe anxiety, and 45 students (69.2%) had moderate stress. No significant differences were observed between the groups at the baseline (all P>0.05). Following the intervention, 53 students (81.6%) had moderate depression, 37 students (56.9%) had moderate anxiety, and 31 students (47.7%) had moderate stress. These results remained almost the same in the follow-up test. Moreover, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy significantly reduced depression (P<0.001), anxiety (P<0.001), and stress (P<0.001) in the posttest and follow-up compared with those in the control group.

These results highlighted the importance of developing strategies such as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for improving mental health of adolescents during COVID-19 pandemic.

Students’ participation in sports activities in the course of physical education is essential for their health and may be influenced by the teacher’s instructing strategies. The present research aimed to examine the effect of a self-determined intervention in physical education class on motivation, engagement, sport satisfaction, and health-related physical fitness of adolescent students.

The present study employed a causal-comparative approach and was conducted on 80 high-school girls (mean age of 16.63 years) of Tehran, Iran, 2019, who were randomly allocated into two intervention and control groups. The students in the intervention group were exposed to a three-month self-determined-based intervention within the physical education class adopted by the teacher. On the other hand, those in the control group attended their regular physical education class. A standard questionnaire assessed the motivation, engagement, and sport satisfaction. Field tests evaluated physical fitness, comprising agility and cardiorespiratory fitness. Independent t-test and ANCOVA were employed for data analysis.

The findings demonstrated that compared to traditional teaching, self-determined intervention contributed to a significantly higher level of motivation (3.58±0.66, P<0.001), engagement (3.14±0.49, P<0.001), and sport satisfaction (2.71±0.20, P<0.001) in the post-test. Our results also revealed that exposure to a self-determined intervention did not significantly improve health-related physical fitness components, including agility (P=0.489) and cardiovascular fitness, (P=0.561) compared to nonautonomous training.

These findings may indicate that the feeling of autonomy, competence, and relatedness within physical education class encompasses greater effects on psychological factors (motivation, intention to engagement, and satisfaction) than physical factors (physical fitness).

It has been established that social incompatibility will have adverse effects on adolescents’ personal, social, educational, and professional lives. The objective of the present study was to investigate the causal relationship of emotion regulation and self-criticism with social incompatibility with the mediating role of self-compassion among boy and girl high school students.

The design was descriptive-correlational estimated through structural equation modeling (SEM). The population of the study included all the high school students in Ahvaz, Iran in the academic year of 2020-2021. Among them, 848 students (443 girls and 405 boys) were selected through multi-stage cluster sampling method. The instruments included Gross and John’s Emotion Regulation Scale (2003), Thomson and Zuroff ’s (2004) Self-Criticism Scale, Neff ’s (2003) Self-Compassion Scale, and Weitzman’s (1990) Social Development Scale. The fit of the proposed model was examined by the use of structural equation modeling (SEM) through AMOS software (version 24). Bootstrap method was used to investigate the indirect effects. In addition, multi-group structural equation was applied to compare the proposed model of boys and girls.

The results showed a good fit of the proposed model with the data (X2/df=2.80, RMSEA=0.047, CFI=0.90, IFI=0.91, GFI=0.96). Additionally, emotion regulation (β=0.63, P<0.001), self-criticism (β=-0.26, P<0.005), and self-compassion (β=0.22, P<0.012) were directly related to the students’ social maladaptation. Moreover, self-compassion mediated the relationship of emotion regulation and self-criticism with social incompatibility (P<0.05). Furthermore, there were no significant differences between the models of the girls and the boys.

Thus, it is suggested that the roles of emotion regulation, self-criticism, and self-compassion in predicting students’ social maladaptation be considered and some training programs be developed and implemented in this regard.

Academic buoyancy can be a major factor in the psychological-educational perspective and can contribute to solving students’ problems in their school life. The present study aimed to investigate the association of academic buoyancy with school-related anxiety and social participation among students educated via the educational approaches of Mizan and regular schools in Tehran, Iran.

The current study was descriptive-correlational. The study population comprised of all elementary-school students in Tehran in the 2018-2019 academic year. A sample of 606 students was selected from regular and guided discovery schools (300 students from regular and 306 from Mizan guided discovery schools). The research instruments included the Academic Buoyancy Scale, the School Anxiety Scale, and School Bonding Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling was applied to predict the relationships among variables.

The results showed that the scores of academic buoyancy and social participation were significantly higher among students receiving guided discovery than that of those receiving traditional education (P=0.014). The scores of school-related anxiety were significantly lower among students receiving guided discovery than that of those receiving traditional education (P<0.001). According to the results, there was a negative association between school-related anxiety with school-related social participation and academic buoyancy. Moreover, the association between school-related social participation and academic buoyancy in the students was positive and significant (P<0.001).

The study findings further highlighted the significance of considering academic buoyancy and social participation in school-related anxiety. It is considered a crucial step in understanding the factors affecting school-related anxiety in students.

Psychophysiological-related benefits of participation in physical activities in school-aged adolescents are not well investigated. The purpose of the present research was to compare the status of self-esteem, goal orientation, physical self-efficacy, and health-related physical fitness in athletic and non-athletic middle school students. The association among physical fitness and psychological variables were also examined.

The present study used a correlational-comparative method. Statistical sample included 200 middle school male students in the age range of 12 to 15 years in 2019, Iran. Data were collected using standard questionnaires and instruments. Health-related physical fitness components included pulls-ups, sit-ups, running 540 meters, and flexibility. Independent t-test and Pearson correlation test were utilized for data analysis.

Age of athletic and non-athletic groups were almost identical (14.96 versus 14.84, respectively). Athletic students had higher height (170.31 versus 163.01), lower weight (54.94 versus 60.46), and lower BMI (18.92 versus 22.69) compared with non-athletic students. The results showed that athletic students had significantly higher levels of self-esteem (P<0.001), physical self-efficacy (P<0.001), and health-related physical fitness in comparison to non-athletic students (P<0.001). Moreover, athletic students relied heavily on task-orientation than non-athletic students (P<0.001). Finally, health-related physical fitness was directly related to self-esteem, task orientation, and physical self-efficacy (P<0.001).

These findings may show that participating in regular physical activity and sport teams contribute to positive impacts on both physiological and psychological components.

Internet addiction disorder (IAD) has become a major global issue in the modern society. Adolescents may be more prone to IAD due to their particular conditions. The current study aimed to investigate the association of IAD with personality types and parenting styles among a sample of Iranian high school students.

In this cross-sectional study, 400 students (50% male), with a mean age of 15.5±1.7 years, were selected randomly from the high schools in Jahrom city, Fars Province of Iran, in 2020. In addition to the demographic information, each participant was asked to fill out three standard questionnaires concerning IAD, parenting style, and personality types. Logistic regression was used to measure the odds ratio and there was a 95% confidence interval regarding the relationship between the independent variables and IAD. The data were analyzed with SPSS version 17.

According to the results of the study, 25.5% of the students had severe IAD. The results of the backward logistic regression showed that the adolescents whose fathers (OR: 13.39, CI: 5.34-23.56) and mothers (OR: 13.64, CI: 7.89-24.99) had a permissive parenting style, as well as those with the personality types of psychoticism (OR: 10.83, CI: 4.26-19-59) and neuroticism (OR: 20.65, CI: 10.06-34.91), were at a higher risk of IAD.

The present study revealed that certain personality types and parenting styles are associated with an increased risk of developing IAD in adolescents. These results could be considered to develop appropriate programs for the prevention and control of the problem at the national or regional levels.

With the spread of COVID-19, the restriction strategies happened in the educational organizations to the direction of virtual education, causing several challenges in the psychological and social components for students. The main purpose of the study was to examine the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) on resilience and psychological hardiness in the students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The current study was a quasi-experimental design with pre-test/post-test scheme along with a follow-up with intervention and control groups. It was performed on 200 students of Dezful University of Medical Sciences (n=100, per each group) selected through stratified random sampling method in 2020. The intervention group was exposed to a four-month intervention based on CBT (nine interventional session). Data were collected using Connor-Davidson Resilience and Kobasa hardiness questionnaire. Data were analyzed through SPSS software version 27 using descriptive statistics same as mean and standard deviation, repeated measures ANOVA, and Bonferroni’s post-tests.

The mean age of the students was 21.93±2.52 years reported as 22.21±2.89 in the intervention group and 21.61±2.62 in the control group (P=0.3115). Before the intervention, there were no differences between the intervention and control groups in the score mean of resilience (P=0.2770) and psychological hardness (P=0.1038). In the post-training period of cognitivebehavioral therapy, there was a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of resilience (P=0.0018), hardiness (P=0.0194), and their dimensions in the two groups. These differences were also observed in the follow-up after four months of intervention.

The results revealed that the application of cognitive-behavioral intervention in student counseling and psychological counseling centers increases the rate of resilience and happiness of students and could be employed to improve mental health and academic status of students.

Resilience is the process of one’s relatively positive adaptation to traumatic experiences. This study aimed to measure the psychometric parameters of the Persian version of the Adolescent Resilience Scale (ARS) among a group of gifted Iranian students.

In this cross-sectional study, 347 gifted adolescents (148 boys and 199 girls) in the academic year 2019-2020 filled out ARS. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) were employed to examine the factorial validity and the gender-based equivalence of the factorial structure of this scale, respectively. AMOS V24.0 was used to analyze the data.

The results of CFA in AMOS showed that after establishing a covariance between error residuals for some pairs of items, the triple-factor version of ARS (consisting of novelty seeking, emotional regulation, and positive future orientation) was well fitted with the data in both groups of boys and girls (RMSEA=0.060). MGCFA results also revealed the inter-group invariance of the factorial structure, factor loading, error values, and inter-factorial variance and covariance of ARS among the gifted male and female students (p <0.001). The internal consistency coefficient was obtained to be 0.82 for novelty seeking, 0.73 for emotional regulation, and 0.70 for positive future orientation.

The study findings provided new empirical evidence on the factorial structure and measurement invariance of ARS. The Persian version of ARS was a valid and reliable tool to measure psychological resilience.