Seydeh Negar Barekat; Elham Foroozandeh; Seyed Mostafa Banitaba
Abstract
Background: Depression, a prevalent psychological disorder, significantly impacts emotional regulation and cognitive avoidance in the academic and professional performance of students. This study compares two interventions, behavioral activation and mindfulness-based, to improve emotional balance and ...
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Background: Depression, a prevalent psychological disorder, significantly impacts emotional regulation and cognitive avoidance in the academic and professional performance of students. This study compares two interventions, behavioral activation and mindfulness-based, to improve emotional balance and reduce cognitive avoidance in college students experiencing depression.Methods: A quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design with a 60-day follow-up period was used in this study. The target population comprised female students at Isfahan State University, Isfahan, Iran who exhibited depressive symptoms during the 2022-2023 academic year, and were referred to the university’s Counseling Center. A convenience sample of 45 participants was selected and randomly assigned to three groups of 15: behavioral activation, mindfulness-based intervention, and a control group. The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) and the Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire (CAQ) were administered to all participants at three time points. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc tests in SPSS version 16.Results: The study found that both mindfulness-based interventions and behavioral activation significantly improved positive emotions and reduced cognitive avoidance in college students with depressive symptoms. For the mindfulness group, positive emotions increased from 15.20±5.59 to 21.00±5.75 at the post-test and then to 18.00±2.85 at follow-up. Cognitive avoidance decreased from 84.66±8.33 to 67.60±7.93 at post-test and then remained stable at 66.93±6.28 at follow-up. The behavioral activation group showed similar trends, with positive emotions increasing from 16.00±6.49 to 19.20±7.07 at post-test and then decreasing to 18.53±5.05 at follow-up. Cognitive avoidance decreased from 80.26±11.78 to 60.93±7.07 at post-test and then increased slightly to 61.60±7.44 at follow-up (P=0.027). While both interventions were effective, behavioral activation had a more lasting impact on positive emotions (P=0.027).Conclusions: The findings of this study suggested that both behavioral activation and mindfulness-based interventions are effective in improving emotional balance and reducing cognitive avoidance in college students with depressive symptoms.
Mojtaba Rahimi; Hossein Molavi; Mojtaba Ansari Shahidi; Akram Dehghani
Abstract
Background: Mothers of children with externalizing behaviors often experience low self-efficacy. The present study investigated the effectiveness of compassion-focused training (CFT) on parental self-efficacy components in mothers of children with externalizing problems.Methods: This study employed a ...
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Background: Mothers of children with externalizing behaviors often experience low self-efficacy. The present study investigated the effectiveness of compassion-focused training (CFT) on parental self-efficacy components in mothers of children with externalizing problems.Methods: This study employed a semi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design. The target population comprised mothers of children exhibiting externalizing behaviors residing in Isfahan, Iran. A convenience sampling technique yielded a sample of 30 mothers who were subsequently randomized into an experimental group (n=15) and a control group (n=15). The experimental group received an eight-week CFT intervention delivered in weekly 90-minute sessions. The control group remained on a waitlist during the intervention period. The Berkeley Parenting Self-Efficacy Scale (BPSE-R) served as the primary outcome measure. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) within SPSS version 23.Results: Parental self-efficacy scores in the CFT group increased significantly from pre-test (51.87±6.17) to post-test (66.39±7.96), while the control group showed no significant change (pre-test: 51.90±5.26; post-test: 54.23±4.08). In the post-test, the CFT group showed significantly higher self-efficacy compared with the control group (P=0.001). Moreover, the CFT significantly increased maternal self-efficacy in the subscales of responsibility acceptance, self-management, child acceptance, and positive child evaluation compared with the control group (P<0.05).Conclusion: The CFT intervention demonstrated significant effectiveness in enhancing various aspects of parental self-efficacy among mothers of children with externalizing problems. These findings suggested that CFT may be a valuable intervention for empowering mothers to manage the challenges associated with raising children exhibiting externalizing behaviors.
Parvaneh Bahmani Makvandzadeh; Amin Koraei; Seyedeh Zahra Alavi; Seyed Esmaeil Hashemi
Abstract
Background: Depression could negatively impact the mood, behavior, attitude, and efficiency of women and massively harm family performance. The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of the self-esteem in the association of attachment behaviors with depression and marital quality in women ...
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Background: Depression could negatively impact the mood, behavior, attitude, and efficiency of women and massively harm family performance. The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of the self-esteem in the association of attachment behaviors with depression and marital quality in women in Ahvaz, Iran.Methods: The study was descriptive-correlational estimated through structural equation modeling. The statistical population was made up of married women with at least high school education in Ahvaz, Iran in 2021. Convenience sampling was used to choose 340 individuals. The instruments included the Quality Marriage Index (QMI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI- 13), the Brief Accessibility, Responsiveness, and Engagement (BARE) Scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). A path analysis approach was adopted to evaluate the proposed model and the indirect relationships were examined through bootstrapping in AMOS version 24.Results: The mean and standard deviation (SD) of depression, marital quality, and self-esteem were 5.78±2.86, 28.58±6.48, and 7.22±2.93, respectively. Depression was negatively correlated with marital quality (r=-0.78) and self-esteem (r=-0.72) in women. The direct paths from attachment behaviors to self-esteem (P<0.001) and from self-esteem to depression (β=-0.53, P<0.001) and marital quality (β=0.18, P<0.001) were significant. The indirect paths from attachment behaviors to depression and marital quality through self-esteem were also significant (P<0.05).Conclusion: The suggested model suited the data well. The relationship between attachment behaviors, depression, and marital quality in women was mediated by self-esteem. Workshops on boosting self-esteem and outlining its advantageous effects on women’s mental health are advised.
Setareh Mohammadipour; Zahra Dasht Bozorgi; Farzaneh Hooman
Abstract
Background: A mother’s distress tolerance is her ability to withstand negative emotions, which can alleviate her child’s behavioral disorders. This study was conducted to investigate the association of distress tolerance and mother-child interaction with children’s behavioral disorders ...
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Background: A mother’s distress tolerance is her ability to withstand negative emotions, which can alleviate her child’s behavioral disorders. This study was conducted to investigate the association of distress tolerance and mother-child interaction with children’s behavioral disorders through the mediating role of marital quality in mothers of children with learning disabilities.Methods: In this descriptive correlational study, the statistical population included all the mothers of students with learning disabilities from Andimeshk, Khuzestan Province, Iran, in 2021. The convenience sampling method was employed for recruiting 210 participants. The research instruments included the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire, the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scales, the Distress Tolerance Scale, the Mental Health Questionnaire, and the Child-Parent Relationship Scale. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was adopted to evaluate the proposed model.Results: The results indicated that the direct paths from distress tolerance and mother-child interaction to marital quality were significant (P<0.001). Moreover, the indirect paths from distress tolerance to children’s behavioral disorders and the association between mother-child interaction and children’s behavioral disorders were significant through the mediating role of marital quality (P<0.001). However, the direct paths from distress tolerance and mother-child interaction to children’s behavioral disorders were not found to be significant.Conclusions: The proposed model had good fitness. It could be considered as a major step towards identification of the factors affecting behavioral disorders of students with learning disabilities.
Khatereh Anbari; Seyed Mohammad Mostafavi; Kourosh Ghanadi
Abstract
Background: Health promotion is a process, which enables people to control and improve their health.Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate health promoting behaviors in women of Khorramabad City.Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 500 women aged between 15 to 49, referring ...
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Background: Health promotion is a process, which enables people to control and improve their health.Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate health promoting behaviors in women of Khorramabad City.Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 500 women aged between 15 to 49, referring to Khorramabad health centers were studied by consecutive sampling method, using the standardized HPLPII questionnaire. t-test, one-way analysis of variance and multi-variable analysis (linear regression) were used for data analysis.Results: Regarding health promoting behavior, 77.8% of women were in average condition, 14.4 % considered desirable, while 7.8 % found to have undesirable status. The mean score was 129.2 ± 20.9. Therefore, the physical activity and health care responsible were of lowest quality, where associability and spiritual growth proved to be in best condition. In linear regression test, the most important factors predictive of health promoting behaviors included the level of education (β = 0.15, P = 0.004), the number of children (β = 0.13, P = 0.002), and the marital status of the participants (β = 0.1, P = 0.021).Conclusions: The health system of any society should pave the way for providing facilities, offering proper trainings, according with intersectoral coordination and following the principle of social justice, encouraging women to perform health-promoting behaviors.
