Research in psychological health

Structural Modeling of Substance Use in University Students: Religious Involvement, Social Modeling, Spiritual Well-being and Attitude towards Substance

Substance use is one of the important health problemsin the world. The present study aimed to test thestructural relations of religious involvement, negative beliefs about substance, spiritual well-being and smoking in a sample of university students. Five hundred and four male and female students of Kharazmi University, Faculty of Agriculture of Tehran University and Islamic Azad University of Karaj Branch were selected by cluster sampling, and completed the religious involvement questionnaire, spiritual well-being questionnaire, social modeling questionnaire, negative beliefs inventory and smoking subscale of high risk behavior questionnaire. Results showed that effects of religious involvement on smoking was mediated by negative beliefs about substance use, social modeling and spiritual wellbeing. Findings suggested plausible mechanisms by which religiousness could impact smoking. Therefore, highlighting these variables could be useful and effective in prevention of smoking which is a gateway for substance abuse.

Designing and testing a model of some precedents and outcomes of work ability index

The purpose of this study was to designing and testing a model of some precedents and outcomes of work ability index. The variables in the model were arranged in three parts: precedents (personal resources, life management strategies and job-related stressors), outcomes (health- related quality of life and job performance) of work ability index. The participants were 320 employees of NISOC, in Ahvaz, who were selected by stratified random sampling method. Of this sample, 72 percent were men and average age was 41 years. Instruments used in this study were work ability index, life management strategies, general self-efficacy, optimism, coping skill, effort-reward imbalance, demand-control, health related quality of life and job performance questionnaires. Fitness of the proposed model was examined through structural equation modeling (SEM), using SPSS-16 and AMOS-16 software packages. The indirect effects were tested using the bootstrap procedure in Preacher and Hayes (2008) SPSS Macro program for mediation. Findings indicated that the proposed model fit the data. Better fit and more meaningful results obtained by correlating the errors of two paths. All of indirect effects were significant.

The role of metacognitive beliefs and attitude to pre-marital relationships in predicting high-risk behaviors in adolescents

The prevalence of high-risk behaviors in communities, especially in teens is a serious health threat that has received much attention in recent years. Therefore the aim of this study is to investigate the role of metacognitive beliefs and attitude to pre-marital relationships in anticipation of risky behaviors in adolescents. Accordingly, a correlational descriptive research method was selected. The research population consisted of adolescents with 17 to 20 years old of district 12 of tehran in 1393. The sample consisted of 80 adolescents in 40 girls and 40 boys who were selected by convenience sampling. To collect data, we used 30-point meta cognition questionnaire(MCQ-30), scale of attitude to pre-marital relationships, and high-risk behaviors scale. The results of current study showed that there was a negative and significant relationship between all components of metacognition and a variety of high-risk behaviors. As well as, there was a positive and significant relationship between attitude toward pre-marital relationships and tendency to high-risk behaviors. Then, regression analysis showed that attitude to pre-marital relationships includes highest predictive power for tendency to relation with the opposite sex which is a component of high-risk behaviors. As well as, among the components of metacognition, the component of need to thoughts control, includes the highest predictive power for high-risk behaviors.

The effect of cognitive behavioral therapy on coping style among patients with cancer in Ahvaz

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy on coping styles (avoidant behavior, cognition, emotion and problem-focused) for patient who had cancer. 40 cancer patients in this study were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (each group, n = 20), that experimental group was trained for 12 sessions. The tool used in this research was “coping styles Billings and mouse questionnaire”. Pre-test and post-test was conducted.
In order to analyze the data ANCOVA and Kolmogorov - Smirnov was used. The results showed that cognitive behavior therapy had desired effect on coping style (emotion-focused coping style and avoidance coping style decreased behavioral, cognitive and problem-oriented increase). Also follow-up showed after one month that this effect was stable.(P > 0.05, P > 0.01).

Factor structure of the Persian form of "Social Phobia Inventory in an Iranian nonclinical sample

The "Social Phobia Inventory" (SPIN) is a well-known screening tool in the field of social phobia disorder (social anxiety disorder) that its creators have designed its items in independent three subscales fear, avoidance, and physiological signs and several international studies and also a few internal studies have been done using it. The weakness of existing studies have motivated these authors to investigate this inventory in a nonclinical Iranian sample. Because of this, 475 students of Tehran University were selected using convenience sampling and completed SPIN. In order to analyze data, data were analyzed with Cross Validation method and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Parallel Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The results of EFA and Parallel Analysis indicated 2 factors structure of SPIN and the results of CFA indicated the fitness of 2 and 5 factors structure with data. In conclusion, the results of this research suggest the regardless of the separation of items related to subscales fear, avoidance and physiological signs, the items related to fear and avoidances of different areas apply together for assessing severity of this disorder; the phenomenon that is according to social anxiety and united relationship of fear and avoidance.

the family, individual, and school correlates of bullying among students

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of bullying among students and its relationship to the quality of family environment, impulsivity, depression, beliefs supportiveofaggressive behavior, and attitude towards school. The sample consisted of 344 secondary school students (205 girls and 139 boys) in Kermanshah who were selected by multistage cluster sampling method. They completed Olweus Bully/victim Questionnaire, University of Texas Depression scale, Impulsivity scale(Bosworth, 1999), Beliefs supportive of Violence (Dahlberg et al., 1998), Psychological sense of School membership scale (Goodenow, 1993), and family climate scale(Holman et al., 1994). Data was analyzed by descriptive analysis procedures and stepwise regression analysis. The results showed that different forms of bullying behaviors prevalence are 13/7 to 52/1 percent for boys, and 10/2 to 64.6 percent for girls. The most reported bullying behaviors for both of groups were name calling and teasing in hurtful way, and the least reported bullying behaviors were taking money or other thing away and damaging them. Results showed that among girls, among all studied variables have significant correlations with bullying behavior, but among boys just three variables (the quality of family climate, depression, and impulsivity) were significantly correlated with bullying behavior. Stepwise regression analysis also showed that for girls, the three variables Quality family atmosphere, a sense of belonging to school and attitudes toward violence significantly predict bullying, but for boys, only impulsivity was significant predictor.. Finally, the implications of findings are discussed.

Sexual function and quality of life in male and female with chronic renal diseases

Chronic renal diseases not only effect on physical health but treat psychological health and other aspect of life. Recent studies show different results about the effect of dialysis on quality of life and sexual function. With respect to importance of these issues in treatment of renal patients, the present study focused on quality of life, sexual desire and function in this population. It was a causal-comparative study with convenience sampling from dialysis and nondialysis patients of Azahra Hospital. Data gathering by 4 questionnaires: Short-Form Health Survey questionnaire, International Index of Erectile Function, Hullbert Index of Sexual Desire, Female Sexual Function Index. The results shows that dialysis patients have less quality of life comparing with no dialysis patients. Also the results show that dialysis and no dialysis women had no deference in sexual function, but it was deferent in dialysis men (less sexual function). In sexual desire factor no dialysis patients was better than dialysis patients. With respect on present study’s results the quality of life and quality of sexual relationship –especially- in dialysis men is significantly less than normal population. These results may be because of the side effects of dialysis such as decrease physical functioning, depression, and etc.