Study of Social Anxiety in Nursing Students of Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Social anxiety is an important factor in peoples’ mental health. Good mental health while studying in university makes students able to deal effectively with numerous stressors that they experience. The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the social anxiety of nursing students in grades one to four of medical universities in Tehran. Methods: In this analytic cross-sectional study, 400 students from universities of medical sciences in Tehran were recruited by stratified sampling with proportional allocation. Data were collected during the first semester in 2010. Students completed a two-part questionnaire including the Liebowitz social anxiety questionnaire and a demographic information form. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics methods and an analytical test by SPSS statistical software. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the total scores of social anxiety of first- to fourth-year students. The mean score of the avoidance of social interaction dimension in fourth-year students was significantly lower than in first year students (p<0.05). Conclusion: In regard to the relationship between social anxiety and interpersonal communication as an associated part of nursing care, decrease of social anxiety of students could play an important role in their mental health. According to the results of this study, it seems that the placement of students in the nursing education system does not produce any changes in their social anxiety

Relationship between Perceived Stress with Resilience among Undergraduate Nursing Students

Background & Aim: The effect of perceived stress on students’ health depends on their coping abilities. Resilience is a coping strategy for dealing with the stress. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the perceived stress with resilience in undergraduate nursing students .   Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, 309 undergraduate nursing students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were selected during the first semester of 2012-2013 using the stratified sampling method. Data were collected using the Perceived stress scale and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in the SPSS-14 .   Results: Findings revealed that most of the students (99.3%) had a moderate or high perceived stress. There was a statistically significant relationship between the perceived stress with the resilience (P £ 0.001, r=-0.38) .   Conclusion: The school of nursing should provide facilities and opportunities for students in their 4-year educational program to learn stress management strategies including increasing resilience ability

Stress Coping Styles among Nursing Students

Background &amp; Objective: Nursing students usually experience various types of stress. Lack of stress coping strategies result in more stress, incompatibility, manifestation of disorders, and mental health problems. This study carried out to assess the methods of coping with stress among nursing students. Methods &amp; Materials: In this cross-sectional study, 358 male and female bachelor of nursing students studying at Tehran University of Medical Sciences during the first semester of 2011-2012 were selected. Data were collected using the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situation and a demographic questionnaire. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in the SPSS-14. Results: There were 66.2% female and 33.8% male students in the study. The age of the students ranged 17-29 years. Most of the students aged 20-22 years (45%), were single (90.8%), were habitants of Tehran (53.1%), had an average economic status (72.1%), and were employed (20.9%). Of all, 19.3% had experienced stressful events in the last three months. A small number of the students (4.7%) suffered from chronic diseases. The nursing students mostly used problem-oriented coping style (56%). The emotion-oriented method was used among 45.99% of the students and the avoidance-oriented style was used among 39.34% of the students. There were no statistically significant relationship between the coping styles and the demographic characteristics. Conclusion: The problem-oriented, emotion-oriented, and avoidance-oriented styles were the most frequent styles used by the students, respectively. The mental health, particularly among nursing students who deal with patients and have important role in the health system, is important and requires special attention. The stress coping styles should be inserted in the educational curriculum of the nursing schools. &nbsp

Hopelessness and Dysfunctional Attitude in Children Under the Support of Child Labor Centers in the South of Tehran in 2021

Background & Aims One of the problems that threatens children in developing countries is the issue of child labor. Working children have lower hope for the future than their normal peers. Working in childhood can have a negative effect on the growth and cognitive performance of children. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of hopelessness and dysfunctional attitudes in working children of southern Tehran. Materials & Methods This is a descriptive-cross-sectional study. The study population consists of all working children and adolescents engaged in child labor aged 10-18 years under the support of child laborers support centers in the south of Tehran. Of these, 247 were selected for the study using a continuous sampling method that lasted 8 months from April to November 2021. The data collection tools were a demographic checklist and the children's dysfunctional attitude scale (DAS) of D’Alessandro and Burton, and the children's hopelessness scale (CHS) of Kazdin (1986). The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage) and inferential statistics (analysis of variance, independent t-test, and Pearson's correlation test) in SPSS software, version 16. The significance level was set at 0.05. Results The results showed that the average score of hopelessness (5.78±2.60) with a standard deviation of 5.78±2.60 was at a favorable level, among the dimensions of hopelessness, the average score of the dimension of future expectations (3.87±1.87) in hopelessness was higher than the dimension of happiness (2.00±1.39). The average ineffective attitude in the study was 96.16±74.11. Hopelessness only had a statistically significant relationship with the work status of the children in the study (P=0.029). There was no statistically significant correlation between ineffective attitude and hopelessness of working children (P<0.050). Hopelessness only had a statistically significant relationship with the work status of the children in the study (P=0.029). Conclusion It is recommended that interventional studies be conducted to improve the future expectations of children, and focus more on working children whose guardian is someone other than parents. Given the lack of a significant relationship between dysfunctional attitudes and hopelessness in working children in the south of Tehran, it is recommended that the mediating and confounding variables be investigated