The Effectiveness of Pennsylvania Resilience Programon Mental Well-being and Academic Stress amongStudents with Visual Impairment in Tehran

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Pennsylvania resilience program on mental well-being (satisfaction of life and positive-negative emotions) and academic expectations stress in students with visual impairment in Tehran.

This experimental study was a pretest-posttest design with a follow-up test. The statistical population of the present study consisted of all first grade high school male students (12-15 years) with visual impairment in Tehran in 2019 that Shahid Mohebbi School was selected non-randomly. Thirty two students with visual impairment at the school were randomly selected and assigned to two experimental and control groups (16 in each group). Then the Pennsylvania Resilience Program was conducted in 7 sessions per week for two sessions. The Positive-Negative Affective Program, Life Satisfaction Scale and the Academic Expectations Stress Inventory were used as the research instruments. .Analysis of covariance and SPSS23 statistical software were used to analyze the data.

The results showed that education of Pennsylvania’s Resilience program significantly increased Life Satisfaction and Positive Emotions while it reduced Negative Emotions and Academic Stress in the experimental group (P< 0/01). These results were also preserved in the follow-up test (P< 0/01).

The results of the present study show that Pennsylvania’s Resiliency Program can be used to improve the mental health of individuals against stress and improve their mental well-being.