The Effect of Emotional Intelligence Skills Training on Educational Stress in Girls

Stress is an important issue during the education period. One of the useful skills for stress management is the emotional intelligence skill. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of emotional intelligence skills training program on educational stress experienced by high school girls.
Material & A pretest, posttest experimental study with a control group was conducted in six girls’ high schools (with the random selection of three schools in the experimental group and three schools in the control group). A total of 100 students (50 in the experimental group and 50 in the control group using the simple random sampling), who met the inclusion criteria, were selected through multistage cluster sampling and responded to the Gadzella’s Student-Life Stress Inventory. The intervention group received six 90-minute educational sessions about the emotional intelligence skills. Two weeks after the intervention, the students in both groups completed the questionnaire again. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential tests such as independent t-test and analysis of covariance through the SPSS software version 16.
The mean score for educational stress in the experimental group decreased from 136 ± 23.79 to 126 ± 23.01 after the intervention, while in the control group the mean score changed from 144 ± 23.75 to 144± 26.51. There was a significant difference between the two groups, in the mean change scores for educational stress (P The school health program is an integrated part of public health, and community health nurses as health teachers play a pivotal role in improving the physical and mental health of students. Therefore, considering the effect of emotional training on reducing the stress of girls in this study, these skills can be introduced to school health nurses in order to promote mental health of students.