The Impact of Religion _Based Communication Skills on the Improvement of Self-Esteem and Mental Health among Students

Background and Objective: Mental health and self- esteem are psychological issues that have long been considered by psychologists, physicians and religious scholars and have also been influenced by a set of social and cognitive factors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of training communication skills adopting a religious approach on self- esteem and mental health of male students. Materials and Methods: The research method was experimental using pre-test, post-test design with a control group. The instruments included the Cooper Smith Self-esteem Questionnaire (۱۹۸۶) and Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (۱۹۸۸). The population of the research included all high school male students in Zanjan in the school year of ۲۰۱۱-۲۰۱۲. Out of this population, ۶۰ students were randomly selected by multi-stage- cluster sampling method and were then divided into two experimental and control groups. Intervention (communicative skills improving through a religious approach) was carried out on the experimental group for fifteen sessions, each lasting for ninety minutes and once a week. SPSS ۱۴ and Ancova tests were used to analyze the collected data. Results: The results of Ancova showed that there was a significant difference in the means of the experimental and control groups in terms of self-esteem (F=۴۴.۶۴, P<۰.۰۰۱) and mental health (F=۸۵, P<۰.۰۰۱). Conclusion: The communication skills training by using a religious approach was effective in the improvement of self-esteem and mental health of students.