Investigating the effect of the emotional intelligence skills training program on the academic stress of high school girls

Dissertation to receive a master's degree in nursing education

Community health trend

Evaluation of the effect of the emotional intelligence skills training program on the stress of teenage school girls

Introduction and purpose: family and academic issues are the main causes of teenage stress is So that one third of students experience more than average stress. Stress in educational institutions is an important issue during one's education. If it is not well controlled, it can have many positive and negative effects. One of the useful skills for managing stress is emotional intelligence skills. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the emotional intelligence skills training program on the academic stress of teenage girls. Materials and methods: The study was experimental with a pre-test and post-test with a control group. Two girls' high schools were randomly selected from each class in the education category and placed in the test and control groups. In total, 50 students who met the inclusion criteria were placed in the test group and 50 in the control group and answered the Godzilla academic stress questionnaire. Then, the units of the intervention group were trained in emotional intelligence skills for 6 sessions of 90 minutes. 2 weeks after the end of the intervention, the students of both groups completed the mentioned questionnaire again. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and Mann-Whitney, t-pair and independent tests, Chi-square and . was analyzed.

Results: The average scores of academic stressors in the dimension of stress caused by conflicts, pressures, changes and self-imposed stress after the intervention in the experimental group decreased significantly (p<0.05). The average scores in the test group increased significantly after the intervention. In the dimension of reaction to stress, the mean scores of the girls in the test group after the intervention decreased significantly (P<0.05)

Conclusion: Since the school health program is an integrated part of community health, the main aspect of these programs is carried out by community health nurses in the fields of monitoring, counseling and health education. Community health nurses have a central role to ensure the health and physical and mental health of students in the form of school health educators. Therefore, the results of this study can be fed back to the school health nurses.

Keywords: academic stress, teenage girls, emotional intelligence skills, student mental health

Statement of the problem:

In this century, "stress" is one of the most important fields of research in various sciences, and the importance of stressful events In the occurrence of numerous personal and social problems, few people are covered (1). The World Health Organization expects that stress-related disorders will become the second most common cause of disability among nations by 2020 (2). Stress is an undeniable part of daily life that can affect physical and mental health (1) and is perhaps the most common problem in human daily life, so that a group of experts have named it the common disease of the century. Our era is the age of stress and nervous tension, a period in which man is exposed to stress-causing factors more than ever before and countless issues and problems surround him from all sides (3). The role of psycho-social stress has always been considered as one of the most important factors in the emergence and formation of various physical and mental diseases and the death of people (4).

In many researches, cases such as stomach ulcers, diabetes, asthma, skin disorders, insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, coronary heart diseases, migraines, nervous headaches, infectious and viral herpes, office infections, tumors, Forgetfulness, fear, increased blood cholesterol, impetuousness and aggression, and hair loss have been considered as diseases caused by stress (4 and 5). Also, the relationship between stress and various social harms, especially smoking, alcohol and drugs, has been confirmed in numerous studies. The important point is that stress has a significant impact not only on the onset and recurrence of the disease, but also on the treatment of these disorders (6). According to doctors' estimates, 75% of medical complaints are stress (1).. According to the estimate of the World Health Organization in 2002, about 1500 million people in the world suffer from one of the neurological, psychological and psycho-social disorders, of which about half of them are mild mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, and they make up nearly 20% of all visitors to public health centers in the world (1 and 3).

Despite the existence of psychological pressures in all stages of life, Among them, adolescence is associated with more pressure due to facing all-round changes. Puberty in most teenagers is accompanied by pressure and stress. These pressures cause emotions, emotional and sometimes psychological problems for them. Adolescents face different issues during their development and try to acquire skills to deal with life events (7). Some studies in America have shown that more than one third (35%) of teenagers are stressed (8). In 2000, the American Psychological Association reported the prevalence of anxiety disorders in adolescents and young adults from 2 to 27% and stated that about 35% of American children experience health problems related to stress (9). Also, statistical information in some studies shows that almost 25% of adolescents experience at least one of the stressful events of life during this sensitive and important period of their lives. They will do (10). Most teenagers experience a lot of stress when they face a dangerous, difficult or painful situation and have no means to cope. Stress puts too much pressure on some teenagers. When this happens, failure to manage stress can lead to anxiety, withdrawal, aggression, physical illness, and poor coping skills, such as substance abuse (12).  The role of stressful experiences in adolescent development depends on the way they use to adapt to stress and problems. Adaptive responses to stress may reduce some stressful experiences and the extent of transient disorders caused by them. While other patterns of adaptation may increase the amount of stress and serious and long-term consequences (13).

There are factors that are effective in the development of the personality of children and adolescents, such as "family, school, community, friends" and if these factors cannot perform their duties effectively, they can be considered the most important factors affecting the psychological stress of adolescents (14). Researches show that family and academic issues are the main causes of worry and mental stress in children and teenagers. Adolescents and school-aged children state that they experience many stressful factors in their daily lives. So that one third of students experience more than average stress. Educational institutions have different conditions compared to other non-educational institutions, and therefore the type, causes, amount of stress and also the resulting consequences are different(11).

Study assignments, peer pressure, taking exams, getting poor grades, bullying at school, final exams and pressure from parents and social isolation, being late to class, punishing or blaming the teacher, failing in exams and lagging behind classmates are some of the things that happen in school. They cause mental pressure in students. Psychological pressure related to school may be due to interpersonal relationship problems such as conflicts and conflicts with friends and other students, teachers, or due to the pressure of school assignments and fear of failure and failure to achieve academic goals. The transition from middle school to high school may also be a stressful experience for many students. Bigert, Sager and Vandengoer reported that students who showed signs of stress during the transition from middle school to high school emphasized that their feelings of lack of confidence and discomfort were due to stressful factors such as intensive curriculum, long hours, complex grading system, and quality of homework (15,16,17). 

Therefore, we can conclude that one of the sources of psychological pressure and expectations from teenagers is school and academic conditions, which can be considered as a great source of stress known as academic stress[1].