The Effect of Illogical Beliefs on Mental Health of the Girl Students of High Schools in Tehran

The present research was done aiming at determining the effect of illogical beliefs on mental health of the secondary school girl students. The studied population included all girl students of secondary schools in Tehran city in educational year of 2008. Research sample was determined to be 360 students using multiphase random sampling method. For gathering data, two major tools were used: A) Jones Illogical Beliefs Questionnaires (IBT) including 100 items with 5 choices in 10 components(expecting others to confirm, excessive self expectation, self criticism, reaction to distress, emotional irresponsibility, anxious attention, prevention from problem, dependence, distress for change, perfectionism), B) Goldberg Mental Health Questionnaire including 28 items with 4 choices in 4 scales: 1) physical symptoms, 2) anxiety and insomnia, 3) social dyspraxia, 4) severe depression. Research data processing was done using descriptive and inferential statistics and results of data processing confirmed research hypotheses that are: 1) 50 % of the high school students had logical belief, 10.5% had average belief, i.e. fluctuating logical and illogical beliefs, 39.5% had illogical beliefs; 2) there is a significant difference between components of mental health of the students. The highest rank relates to depression and the lowest rank relates to physical symptoms; 3) one can predict disorder in mental health of the students on grades of illogical beliefs. Ability to predict illogical beliefs in terms of distress for change is more than that in terms of emotional irresponsibility and emotional irresponsibility is more than prevention from problem, and prevention from problem is more than self criticism and self criticism is more than anxious attention.