Hospital Practices and Research

Abstract Background: Students who have lost a parent often experience low levels of self-efficacy and quality of academic life due to the psychological distress caused by this loss.
Objectives: The study aimed to determine if positive psychology training could improve the self-efficacy and academic performance of students who had lost a parent.
Methods: This quasi-experimental research adopted a pretest-posttest design with a two-month follow-up. The study focused on female senior high school students in Ahvaz, Iran, who had lost a parent in 2022. Forty eligible students were selected through purposive sampling and then randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. The participants in the experimental group received a ten-week positive psychology training intervention, consisting of weekly 90-minute sessions. The control group served as a no-intervention comparison group. The research data, collected using questionnaires on self-efficacy and quality of academic life, were analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA in SPSS-23.
Results: The results showed that positive psychology training significantly affected the self-efficacy and quality of academic life in participants (P<0.001). The positive psychology group exhibited significantly higher mean post-test scores on both self-efficacy (83.90 ± 7.56) and quality of academic life (146.40 ± 10.64) compared to the control group (45.20 ± 5.35 and 101.05 ± 6.88, respectively).
Conclusion: The study found that positive psychology training can significantly improve the self-efficacy and quality of academic life of students who have experienced the loss of a parent. This suggests that such interventions could be beneficial for supporting the overall well-being and academic success of these students.