The effect of assertiveness training on student's academic anxiety.

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE: Academic anxiety is an important educational problem that affects millions of students in colleges and schools over the world each year. Although a low level of anxiety can cause positive motivation for improvement of educational functioning, high levels of it can cause a disturbance in concentration, attention, storage of knowledge, recall and educational reduction. It has also been recently determined that there is a relationship between anxiety and assertiveness. Therefore, this study is an attempt to determine the effect of assertiveness training on reducing anxiety levels in pre-college academic students in Gonabad city in 2008. METHODS: In this clinical trial study, all the pre-college students of Gonabad city were invited to participate and 89 students were divided into experimental and control groups. There were 3 questionnaires, namely demographic, academic anxiety and assertiveness Rathus questionnaires in which the validity and reliability were calculated and approved. The intervention for the experimental group was 5 sessions of assertiveness training using the PRECEDE model and 1 session for parents and teachers to help and support the intervention program. We had a post-test 8 weeks after the last training session for each group was conducted. The data was analyzed by SPSS. RESULTS: The results showed that anxiety levels and decisiveness in the target group were moderate to high and it is seen as a significant reverse relationship between these two factors (r = -0.69 and p < 0.001). The results also showed that there was a significant anxiety decrease in the experimental group after the intervention. On the one hand, there was a significant increase in decisiveness for both groups, but there was not a significant difference between academic anxiety and assertiveness in the control group.before and after the intervention. CONCLUSION: Due to a significant decrease in anxiety and increased decisiveness in the experimental group, it can be claimed that assertiveness training is an effective non-pharmacological method for reducing academic anxiety and it can improve academic performance.

Development of a valid and reliable diabetes empowerment scale: an Iranian version.

BACKGROUND: Patient empowerment can enhance the outcomes of care such as metabolic control as well as quality of their life. This study evaluates the Iranian version for development of a valid and reliable diabetes empowerment scale. METHODS: Validity and reliability of Iranian version of Diabetes Empowerment Scale (DES-LF) were measured through a cross-sectional study. DES-LF was evaluated through a qualitative and quantitative study by 160 type 2 diabetic patients. RESULTS: Reliability and validity of the scale and its 3 subscales, namely, managing the psychosocial aspects of diabetes (α=0.94), assessing dissatisfaction and readiness to change (α=0.96), and setting and achieving diabetes goals (α=0.96) were approved by a psychometric analysis. CONCLUSION: Findings approved the reliability and validity of the Iranian version of DES-LF for patient education and psychosocial interventions among Iranian people with type 2 diabetes.

Comparison of environmental health status in primary schools in different districts of Isfahan city in 2008-2009.

INTRODUCTION: Students spend at least 20% of their time in schools. Training, educating and the personality of these students depends on appropriate educational methods, proper physical space, and also favorable mental environment. Students are considered as a major human resources of any society and dealing with their health and promoting educational environment health is in fact a kind of investment for future. In this study we examined the status of environmental health status in primary school of different districts of Isfahan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was a descriptive-analytical study. The number of studied samples was 77 schools in Isfahan which were selected by regular randomized method The tool used to gather data was a environmental health inquiry form for school environments, and consisted of two parts: the first part included common school specifications and the second part involved items dealing with desirability of various parts of schools.The above forms were filled out in 3 months by specialists in public health, evaluating the schools and interviewing the principals. Then, they were analyzed and a comparison was made between the results from various districts. RESULTS: 76.6% of schools complied with the standards and 80.5% of classrooms were in desired conditions. Regarding the standards for building and classrooms, there was no significant difference between various districts. Hygiene services (water closets and basin) and drinking water were at desired level and there was no significant difference between various districts in this regard, however the district 1 was in undesired condition. Regarding collecting and disposing of rubbishes and trashes, 79% of schools were in desired condition and 49% of them had hygienic tuck-shops according to standards, but there was no significant difference between various districts. CONCLUSION: The study showed that the status of environment health is at desired level in primary schools in Isfahan, but the health of tuck-shops should improve in schools and it needs more attention and interest from authorities of Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health and dedicating proper budgets to solve their health problems.