The Impact of online training of Positive Thinking Skills on Social Adjustment and Alexithymia in Transsexual Students

Abstract

Introduction: Alexithymia and social adjustment are among the problems that transsexual students encounter. Teaching positive thinking skills has been considered as a therapeutic technique for social adjustment and behavioral issues in children and adolescents. Hence, this study was conducted aiming to determine if teaching positive thinking skills would contribute to improved social adjustment and alexithymia in transsexual students.Methods: The present study was semi-experimental in terms of research methods, and an applied one in terms of the research objective. It was performed as a pre-test, post-test study composed of two experimental and control groups for three months (From May to July 2021). The research population was made up of all transsexual secondary high school students referring to schools and education departments' counseling offices in Tehran. Out of the research overall population, a total of 30 students selected through convenient sampling composed the research sample. They were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. The former received teaching in positivity as an intervention through Google Meet, whereas the latter received no intervention. The data collection tools for this study were Sinha & Singh's Adjustment Inventory for School Students (AISS) (1993), The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) (1994), and the positive thinking skills framework by Seligman, Steen, Park, and Peterson (2005). Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software version 23. Results: The results displayed that teaching positive thinking skill was effective in social adjustment in transsexual students (P=0.002). Teaching positive thinking skills was also found to have a significant effect on alexithymia in students (P=0.007). Conclusion: Teaching positive thinking skills was shown to make a great contribution to transsexual students' social adjustment and alexithymia.

Keywords

• positive thinking
• social adjustment
• alexithymia
• students
• transsexual