The Effectiveness of Positive Psychotherapy on Improving Psychological Adjustment of the Students with Suicidal Ideation: With an Emphasis on Religious Teachings

Abstract

Adolescence, one of the most critical periods of development, leads to various stressors. Incompatibility with this period may cause injuries such as suicidal ideation. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of positivist psychotherapy, with emphasis on religious teachings, on improving the psychological adjustment of the students with suicidal ideation in secondary school in Khalkhal. It is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design with an experimental group and a control group. The statistical population, from which 30 people were selected for the experimental group and the control group by multi-stage sampling method, was female students at the secondary school in Khalkhal city in the academic year 2019-2020. The Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSSI) and the Bell’s Adjustment Inventory (BAI) (1961) were used for data collection. The findings showed that positive psychotherapy with emphasis on religious teachings has a positive effect on improving psychological adjustment (P <0.01). In general, it can be said that positivist psychotherapy based on religious teachings with a strong theoretical and research background is an appropriate strategy to improve the psychological adjustment of students with suicidal ideation, and it can be used as an effective intervention method in the treatment of this type of mental disorders.

Keywords

• positive psychotherapy
• religious teachings
• psychological adjustment
• suicidal ideation