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Background and Objectives: COVID-19 is becoming one of the biggest threats and challenges to global public health. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of online life skills training for the parent-adolescent conflicts and adolescents' academic procrastination during COVID-19 period. Materials and Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design with a control group. Thirty students were selected based on multi-stage cluster and were randomly assigned to the experimental (15 students) and the control (15 students) groups. They filled out Straus' Parent-Adolescent Conflict questionnaire and Solomon and Rothblum's Academic Procrastination questionnaire. The participants in the experimental group received 10 online 60 minute sessions of life skills training, and the control group did not receive any intervention. Data analysis was performed using analysis of covariance at a significance level of α = 0.05. Results: The results of data analysis showed that online life skills training during COVID-19 outbreak significantly reduced parent-child conflict, the components of reasoning, verbal aggression, physical aggression, and academic procrastination including the components of preparing for exams, preparing for homework, and preparing for classroom research (P ˂ 0.05). The effect size showed that the effect of online life skills training on parent-adolescent conflict was more effective than that of academic procrastination. Conclusions: Due to the effectiveness of online life skills in reducing parent-adolescent conflicts and academic procrastination, the use of this method is recommended to psychologists and family counselors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: A review of research shows that different life skills training approaches are effective on self-expression and emotion regulation; But can life-skills based on a Jay McGraw approach also affect adolescents' self-expression and emotion regulation? The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of life skills training based on Jay McGraw's approach on self-expression and emotion regulation in adolescents. Methods: The research method was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test with control group. From the adolescent statistical population after screening, 30 adolescents were selected purposefully and were randomly assigned into two control and experimental groups. Questionnaires of Existence (Gambrill & Richey, 1975) and Cognitive Emotion Regulation (Garnefski et al., 2001) were distributed between the two groups as pre-test, then the experimental group under the Life Skills Training (Jay McGraw, 2002) and finally post-test was taken from both groups and data were analyzed using MANCOVA and ANCOVA. Results: The results showed that the life skills training based on Jay McGraw's approach increased the expression and emotion regulation of the experimental group in the post-test. (P≤0.001). Conclusion: To enhance adolescents' self-expression and emotion regulation, a new approach to JayMcGraw based life skills training can be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: With the onset of adulthood, the rate of high-risk behaviors in individuals rises. Research has shown that preventive training schedules reduces the incidence of high-risk behaviors. The purpose of this study was to investigate Effectiveness of Drug Use and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Prevention Package on Drug Use and High Risk Behaviors Reduction among College Students of Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch. Methods: The study sample was composed of all students in different grades. The sampling method of research had two stages. First, 384 students were selected according to Krejcie and Morgan chart, using stratified random sampling method; they answered to Risky Behaviors questionnaire. Then 15 participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 15 participants to the control group. Using risky behavior questionnaire a pre-test was performed for both groups. Then the experimental group participated in 12 session (each session 90 minutes) of drug use and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome prevention workshop; the control group remained on a waiting list. At the end of training sessions and one month follow up, both groups were tested again. Data was analyzed using repeated measures design. Results: The results showed that the variable scores of tendency to drug use, sexual risk behaviors, anti-social behavior and suicidal thoughts in the post-test and follow-up in experimental group was significantly lower than the control group. So we can conclude that the training package of drug use and AIDS prevention and prevention is effective in drug use and risky behavior reduction. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the drug use and acquired immune deficiency syndrome Prevention Package can be effective in reducing drug use and high-risk behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare the self- efficacy, self -esteem, social anxiety, shyness and aggression among the high school students with different levels of assertiveness. Materials and Methods: In this study, 311 first and second grade high-school students were selected from the five regions of Tehran (North, South, Central, East, and West) through cluster sampling. The low, high and moderate-assertive participants were recognized based on the mean and standard deviation of assertiveness. Multivariate analysis (MANOVA) was used to compare the research variables in the three groups. Results: The results showed a significance value of F for Wilks lambda (F=4.12, P=0.001) indicating the overall differences in different levels of assertiveness. There was a significant difference in self-efficacy (P<0.001, F: 13.77) and self-esteem (P<0.001, F: 4.80) in three groups of assertiveness. Moreover, a significant difference was found in aggression (P<0.001, F: 12.1), social anxiety (P<0.001, F: 5.24) and shyness (P<0.001, F: 8.65) among the high, low and moderate-assertive students. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the high-assertive students had the higher levels of self-efficacy and self-esteem and lower levels of social anxiety, shyness and aggression as compared to the low and moderate-assertive students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]