هوشنگ گراوند

Mental health plays an essential role in ensuring the dynamism and efficiency of any society. Entering the university is a challenging life event for young adults; because students encounter changes in social communication, expectations, and roles. As a result, they are susceptible to experiencing stress and anxiety that could affect their functions. The present study was done to present the causal model of the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations on mental health about the mediating role of irrational beliefs. The research method was descriptive correlational. To do this, 250 students from Allameh Tabatabaei University were selected via available sampling and then answered a self-report questionnaire consisting of four Factors of Irrational Beliefs Test-Ahvaz (4IBT-A; Ebadi and Motamedi, 2005), General Health Questionnaire (28- GHQ; Goldberg & Hiller, 1979), and Aspiration Index (AI; Grouzet et al., 2005). Data analysis was administered in two parts of latent and observed variables via structural equation modeling using AMOS software. The results showed that extrinsic aspirations positively predict irrational beliefs and intrinsic aspirations negatively predict irrational thoughts; intrinsic aspirations, directly and indirectly, affect mental health; but extrinsic aspirations have no direct effect on mental health; instead, they can reduce students' mental health mediating irrational beliefs. Also, irrational beliefs had a causal and immediate impact on mental health.

Objective: The Coronavirus not only affects physical health, but the outbreak of this virus can also have devastating psychological effects. To treat and diagnose, these impacts should be identified. This study aimed to the mediating role of empathy in relationship between self-compassion and psychological capital with corona anxiety. Method: The research method was correlation of the type path analysis. The population of this study included all Undergraduate Students Poldokhtar Higher Education Center (450 student) who were studying during the academic year of 2020-2021. 210 male students participated in this study online and responded to Corona Disease Anxiety Scale (CDAS; Alipour & et al., 2020), Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003), Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ; Luthans et al., 2007)and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1983). The research method used was casual modeling. Results: The results showed that the proposed model has a good fit with the data of this study (RMSEA = 0.001, GFI = 1.00, AGFI = 0.98, CFI = 1.00). The results showed that the psychological capital had a direct effect on corona anxiety (β = -0.16, p<0.05); but Self-compassion did not have a direct effect on corona anxiety (p>0.05). Self-compassion had a direct effect on empathy (β = 0.32, p<0/01); but psychological capital did not have a direct effect on empathy (p>0/05). Also, empathy had a direct effect on corona anxiety (β = -0.29, p<0/01). Indirect pathway results showed that only Self-compassion mediated by empathy could reduce corona anxiety (p<0/01). Conclusions: According to the results, students with higher psychological capital and empathy experience less corona anxiety, and on the other hand, the more self-compassion increases, the more empathy improves, which results in a decrease in corona anxiety. Therefore, through education and promotion of self-compassion, empathy can be increased and the severity of corona anxiety in students can be reduced.