Applied Psychology
Year:2017 | Volume:11 | Issue:1 (41) |Papers Count:8

Aim: The purpose of the present research was to determine the effectiveness of positive parenting education compared with mindfulness on healthy mother-child and sibling relationships in families with ADHD children. Method: Research method was semi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and follow-up. Statistical population including 68 mothers with an ADHD child who were referred to three private clinics in Ahvaz in South West Iran, namely, Taravat, Rayan and Mehravaran from October 2014 until June 2015. 51 participants were selected according to research criteria and were arranged randomly in two experimental and one control groups. Experimental groups, received positive parenting skills Sanders 1999 and mindfulness training Chaskalon 2011 in eight sessions of 120 minutes duration each. All groups completed the parent-child relationship scale Pianta, 1994 and the siblings relationship questionnaire Furman & Buhrmester, 1985 in pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The data was analyzed by MANONA. Results: Results showed that the two interventions positive parenting program (F= 31. 87, P=0. 008) and mindfulness (F=15. 87, P=0. 04) were effective on increasing the quality of healthy parent-child relationship, but positive parenting program had a more positive effect on mother-child relationship (F=16. 00, P=0. 011). In siblings relationship only the positive parenting program was effective (F=20. 07, P=0. 002). Moreover, these results remained constant at follow-up. Conclusion: Positive parenting intervention as a family-focused method concerns the Family system and interactions and is more effective compared to the more person oriented method of mindfulness in improving impaired relationships in families with ADHD child.

Aim: This present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of localized play therapy on the stress of mothers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder preschool children. Method: The research design was pretest-posttest with a control group. Using the stratified random sampling and considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria of research, from among 56 preschool centers in Najafabad in 1394, 10 preschool centers were selected and in the second stage, from among 78 mothers of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder children with the history of referring to a psychologist or psychiatrist, 24 mothers were randomly selected and were randomly assigned into two groups experimental and control. The experimental group was presented with localized play therapy Rahimi, Ghobari, Afrooz, & Faramarzi (2015) for 10 sessions of 90 minutes one session a week while the control group received no treatment. Parenting stress index-short form, Abidin, 1983, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Vanderbilt assessment scale parent form, Wolraich, lambert, Doffing, Bickman, & Simmons, 2003, and semi-structural clinical interviews Tehrani dost, zargari nejad, khademi & motlagh (2009) were used for data collection and the data were further analyzed using repeated measure design analysis and checking for the assumptions. Results: The results of the study indicated a significant difference between control and experimental group in parenting stress (F=56. 06, P=0. 001), interaction (F=23. 45, P=0. 003), and child problems (F=23. 78, P=0. 02) in the posttest and a two and half month follow-up. Conclusion: Since the localized play therapy, in the form of child-parent interaction, facilitates this interaction, it increases mother’ s satisfaction and decreases their stress; therefore, this treatment procedure can be provided for psychologists.

Aim: Aim of study was to determine the structural model of relationships between psychosocial developments of offspring’ s with spiritual intelligence (SQ) and parenting styles of mothers. Method: Research method was correlational and statistical population consisted of 29, 474 female and male university students in Alborz province in the 2015-16 academic year. Participants were selected via multi-stage random sampling from Teachers’ University, Islamic Azad University, Karaj branch and the College of Agriculture. Based on Krejcie-Morgan table (1970), the sample size consisted of 400 students. The psychosocial development questionnaire Hawley (1988) was completed by students, and the spiritual intelligence questionnaire Abdollahzadeh, Kashmiri and Arab Amely (2008) and the parenting styles questionnaire Baumrind 1973 were completed by their mothers. Results: Results showed that total path coefficient between latent variable of mothers' SQ (β =0. 416, P=0. 001) and its indirect path coefficient (β =0. 178, P=0. 01) with psychosocial development of their children was positive and significant, also path coefficients of mothers’ permissive parenting style (β =0. 206, P=0. 003) and maternal authoritative parenting style (β =0. 184, P=0. 01) with latent variable of psychosocial development of their children was significant and positive. In contrast, the path coefficients of maternal authoritarian parenting style was not significant with their children psychosocial development. Conclusion: Spiritual intelligence has a significant impact on offspring’ s' psychosocial development through the mediation of parenting styles both directly and indirectly. On the other hand, based on existing research, it can be increased by education. So, to facilitate the development of the psychosocial health of the next generations it is necessary that training programs for parents' spiritual intelligence improvement be provided and implemented.

Aim: The aim of the present study, was to determine the causal model of relationship between self-perceived competence and classroom environment with academic achievement, with an emphasis on the mediating role of beliefs about and behaviors towards progress. Methods: Research method was correlation and the statistical population was, male and female high school students in Karaj comprising of 102, 874 in the 2015-16 academic year. 800 male and female high school students were selected using multi-stage random sampling, these were selected from four girl’ s high schools, namely, Hijab, Afagh, Alborz and Jami and four boys high schools, namely, Hadaf, Adab, Milad and Navid. The following questionnaires were used to collect data: The perception of classroom questionnaire Fraser, Fisher and McRobbies, (1996), Pintrich and De Groot‘ s (1990) motivational strategies for learning and Harter’ s (1985) perceived competence questionnaire. After discarding corrupted questionnaires and untrustworthy data, the data for 712 students were analyzed. Results: Data analysis indicated that the model is a good fit with the data from in this study. Coefficients obtained from indirect effect of competence beliefs (β =0. 05, P=0. 03) and the perceptions of classroom environment (β =0. 16, P=0. 025), showed that, only perceptions of classroom environment, with the mediation role of belief about progress and behavior towards progress, could predict academic performance indirectly. Conclusions: Due to the key role of progress beliefs and behaviors, on the relationship between perceptions of classroom environment and competence beliefs with academic competence, it is necessary to pay more attention to these structures in educational planning.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to determine the mediator role of self-esteem in the relationship between time perspective and quality of life of students. Method: The study design was descriptive correlational and the statistical population included all students of Azad Islamic University, Shahre Ghods branch in 2014-2015 academic year, N = 35000. Of these, 251 students were selected via multistage sampling. Hence, two departments were selected from the faculty of electrical and computer sciences and two departments were selected from the Faculty of humanities and letters. The study tools included the WHOQOL-BREF, 1996, the time perspective inventory Zimbardo and Boyd (1999) and Eysenck's 1976 self-esteem questionnaire. The obtained data was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results: Results revealed that self-esteem mediates the effect of negative-past time perspective (β =-0. 180, P=0. 001) and present fatalistic time perspective (β =-0. 088, P=0. 042) on dimensions on quality of life negatively and the effect of positive-past time perspective (β =0. 156, P=0. 001) and future time perspective (β =0. 134, P=0. 001) on dimensions on quality of life positively. Conclusion: It is recommended that psychologists and educators teach parents to pay attention to their children's time perspective especially a more balanced perspective and also their plans, goal setting and self-esteem.

This study aimed to explore reliability, validity and standardization the Comparative Feeling of Inferiority Index (CFII; Strano & Dixon, 1990) among junior students of Karaj. 641 Iranian junior students in grade 1, 2, and 3 participated in the study (328 girls and 313 boys) completing the CFII, resulted in omitting 3 items due to low correlation and factor loadings. Cronbachʼ s alpha for the remaining 27 items for Self-Rating Scale and Family-Rating Scale were 0. 799 and 0. 751 and test-retest reliability of both scales were 0. 845 and 0. 707 respectively. Results of explanatory factor analysis showed that the Self-Rating Scale include four factors (1. goals and standards, 2. negative psycho-physical, 3. social and 4. positive psycho-physical) and the Family-Rating Scale include three factors (1. positive psycho-physical, 2. negative psycho-physical and 3. social). The extracted factors confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. A correlation (rS=-0. 440, rF=-0. 405, P<0. 01) between Self/Family Rating Scale and the Self-Esteem (Coopersmith, 1967) and (rS=0. 326, P<0. 01; rF=0. 221, P<0. 05) Rogers Self-Concept Test supported the divergent validity.

Aim: The objective of the present study was to determine the validation and normalization of the balloon analogue risk taking task (BART) designed in a sample of Iranian university students. Method: The research method was cross-sectional study and type of correlational studies. The statistical population was 6000 students at Shahid Beheshti University in the second semester of the academic year 2014-2015. Among them, 400 individuals were selected through convenience sampling, the sample size was determined in respect to inclusion and exclusion criteria, sufficient fifteen samples per variable and based on similar studies. To collect data, the balloon analogue risk task Lejuez, Read, Kahler, Richards, Ramsey, Stuart, Strong & Brown (2002) which is designed according to Persian culture and language was used and and for evaluating concurrent validity, the risk taking scale in social situations Nejati (2013) and the 21 item questionnaire of anxiety, depression and stress Lovibond & Lovibond (1995) were used. The data were analyzed through multivariate analysis of variance and correlation methods. Results: After the elimination of 46 irrelevant and incomplete questionnaires, results showed that the test enjoyed an appropriate Cornbrash’ s alpha (79. 0). Gender (F=0. 738, P=0. 292) and marital status' (F=0. 651, P=4. 24) did not show significant relationship with the scores of the test indicators. Also, the balloon analogue risk task had suitable concurrent validity, along with the scales of risk taking in social situations (r=-0. 45, P=0. 05), anxiety, depression and stress (r=-0. 81, P=0. 05). Conclusion: The balloon analogue risk task has acceptable psychometric properties, and could be used to assess and measure risk-taking both in clinical and research opportunities.