The Effectiveness of Emotional Self-Control on Students' Academic Vitality and Academic Performance

Over the years, academic performance has been widely considered as one of the indicators of assessing the studentschr('39') learning and the quality of education. During their academic life, students face different challenges, obstacles and stresses which may threaten their academic performance and academic vitality. Therefore, this study was done to investigate the effectiveness of emotional self-control training on the academic vitality and academic performance of students. 

The present study was a quasi-experimental study with control group pretest- posttest design including the follow-up stage. The study population included all the male students studying at the first cycle of the secondary school in Birjand city in the academic year of 2019-2020. Among which a sample of 40 students were selected by purposive sampling and then assigned randomly to the experimental or the control group (20 per group). The experimental group received eigth 60-min sessions of emotional self-control; whereas no training was done for the control group. The research tools included Questionnare of Academic Vitality (Dehghanzadeh and Hosseinchari, 2012), Academic Performance Questionnaire (Dortaj, 2004) and Self-control Scale (Tanjeny et al., 2004). Data were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA at the significance level of α = 0.05.

Results of data analysis showed that emotional self-control training was effective on academic vitality (p <0.01) and academic performance and its components (self-efficacy, emotional effects, planning, lack of outcome control and motivation) (p <0.01). The findings persisted in the follow-up period (p <0.01).

Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that emotional self-control training can improve the skills related to resilence and adjustment and prevent the inappropriate emotions in students which in turn can increase the academic vitality and academic performance in them.