[Effect of stress managament skills training on the academic achievement of highschool girl students]

ABSTRACT

Stress has wall- known effects in the pathogenesis of many physical and mental disorders and training of stress management skills may help individuals to reduce the adverse psychological consequences of it in such conditions. This study was aimed to assess the effects of stress management skills training on the academic achievement of girl students. A semi-experimental study carried out in the girls' high schools of Tiran and Karvan city in the 2006-2007 academic year. A total number of 198 students were selected through randomized cluster sampling and randomly assigned to the case and the control groups. Their coping styles were assessed using the Checklist of Stress-Revised [CS-R].After performing Stress Management Skills Training for the case group, in an active mutual participation model, the final average academic scores of the first [pre-intervention] and the second [post-intervention] academic half-year examinations were compared between the two group using t-student and t-paired tests running SPSS-10 software. No significant difference was found between two groups regarding their use of problem-focused, emotion-focused, less effective and non-effective styles. Comparing the 18 coping strategy subscales, both groups showed a significant difference only in the impulsivity subscale [p < 0.05]. The means of the average academic scores of the groups were not significantly different in the pre-interventional half-year [p = 0.37] and were significantly different in the post- interventional half year [p < 0.05]. Training stress management skills exerts positive effects in the students' academic achievement