The development of any society depends on the educational system of that society. The educational system can be efficient and successful when considering the academic performance of learners in different periods. School years are among the most basic years of children’s lives. School experience significantly impacts academic success and mental health in adulthood. Neglecting mental health promotion in schools complicates any change, decision, or treatment plan. School is a unique opportunity and a key place to improve the lives and mental health of children and adolescents. Mental health is among the most important topics in psychology and psychiatry. Besides, mental health illnesses are on the rise.
Numerous studies suggested that organizing mental health services in schools is a fundamental strategy for promoting the health of students and ultimately society as a whole. This study aimed to investigate the effects of mental self-care education on students’ mental health and academic motivation.

 This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and a control group design. The statistical population of this study consisted of students referring to the school counseling center. First, 40 individuals were randomly selected by screening method; those who presented decreased mental health status and academic motivation were selected and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Initially, those who were willing to participate in the present study were invited to the counseling center. In the briefing session, general explanations about the research process and educational sessions were provided to them. Then, a pretest was performed on them. Next, the training sessions began for the experimental group (Table 1);



however, the controls received no training. At the end of the sessions, a posttest was conducted on the experimental and control groups. The collected data were analyzed using Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) (Table 2).



The following tools were employed in this research:
A) Academic Performance Rating Scale: This 15-item questionnaire measures 3 subscales of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive motivation.
B) The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 Items (DASS-21): This inventory is used to measure stress, anxiety, and depression. The DASS-21 has 21 questions. Besides, the final score of each item is obtained by the sum of the scores of the related questions.

The present research results revealed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the dependent variables. Therefore, mental self-care training improved the combined dependent variables (mental health & academic motivation). Each variable was separately investigated and analyzed.
The collected results indicated that the components of mental health variables (depression, anxiety, stress) revealed a significant difference between the study groups at a 95% confidence interval (P>0.05). In other words, psychological self-care training improved the components of self-care. However, the MANCOVA results on the adjusted scores of the variable of academic motivation presented no significant difference between the research groups (P<0.05) (Table 2).
The obtained findings indicated that mental self-care training was effective on students’ mental health status. Mental health included 3 dimensions of depression, anxiety, and stress. Depression provided an effect size of 0.46, self-care education has increased life enthusiasm and motivation for success and has reduced the symptoms of depression (P>0.05) (Table 2). Anxiety’s effect size equaled 0.36; self-care training has reduced anxiety among students (P>0.05) (Table 2). The effect size of stress was measured as 0.45; self-care training has reduced stress (P>0.05) (Table 2). The effect size of motivation equaled 0.02; self-care has not affected motivation in the study subject (P<0.05) (Table 2).

 This study examined the effects of mental self-care education on students’ mental health and academic motivation. The relevant results indicated that mental self-care education improved mental health; however, it did not affect academic motivation and its level remained unchanged. Mental health addressed 3 dimensions of depression, anxiety, and stress.
According to cognitive theory, depression results from specific cognitive distortions in individuals. In psychological self-care, targeting distortions improves cognitive distortions in the depressed subject.
Depression is among the most common and debilitating problems in adolescents. School-Age individuals have certain characteristics that can cause depressive symptoms in them and prevent them from studying. Self-care education allows an individual to increase self-confidence, self-esteem, enthusiasm for life, and motivation for success; it can reduce the symptoms of depression in adolescents. To improve the condition of students, psychological self-care education can be used for them in all aspects of life, including education. Self-care education teaches the student the skills of using one’s health resources; ultimately, it improves health, reduces anxiety, and increases the quality of life in adolescents. By learning mental self-care, individuals can cope with difficult situations and maintain a positive and constructive attitude towards life’s problems. They can cope well with difficult situations and reduce their stress; accordingly, psychological self-care training was effective on students’ stress.
 This study indicated that psychological self-care education did not affect students’ academic motivation. The purpose of psychological self-care education is to improve the student’s psychological performance; it does not monitor the educational, learning, and educational aspects of academic life. Thus, psychological self-care has not been effective on students’ academic motivation. Among the variables that may affect the result of the research, we can mention the synchronicity, internal validity, and the sample of the available research.

This article was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Islamic Azad University, Khomeini Shahr Branch (Code: IR.IAU.ARAK.REC.1399.001).

The article was extracted from the PhD. dissertation of the second author at the Department of Psychology and Counseling, Faculty of Humanities, Islamic Azad University, Khomeini Branch.

Conceptualization, research design: Zahra Zari Moghadam and Hossein Davoodi; Methodology, data analysis: Zahra Zari Moghadam and Hossein Davoodi; Data collection: All authors.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

 

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