Document Type : Research Article
Authors
1 Professor, Department of Psychology and Education of Exceptional Children, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of British Columbia
3 Ph.D. Student in Educational Psychology, University of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Introduction
Early findings that urban bus drivers are liable to suffer from mental health problems as a result of high levels of job stress, remain true today. The research needs to concentrate on practical interventions that are systematically implemented and evaluated to improve the mental health of bus drivers. The current study aims to investigate the effectiveness of psycho-social skills training on interpersonal forgiveness and social anxiety of urban bus drivers in Tehran.
Method
The training project of the bus drivers of Tehran bus driving company
started in 2013 and it is implemented in different phases on drivers who are aplicants of employment in bus driving company in Tehran. This study utilized a quasi- experimental research method with pre-test & post-test design. 41 urban bus drivers with an average age of 43.95 (SD = 9.87) were trained in the areas of anger management, revenge driving, effective communication, and stress management over 9 sessions, 80 minutes each. To evaluate the effectiveness of the training program, Interpersonal Forgiveness Inventory (IFI) and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) were used.
Results
Statistical analysis showed that the training program has a positive effect on the levels of recomunicating and controlling revenge, resentment control, realistic understanding and also on the overall forgiveness score, and had a significant impact on increasing the ability of drivers to control their resentment (P> 0.05). Also, our results showed that the intervention had a significant effect on reducing social interaction anxiety in bus drivers
(P> 0.05).
Discussion
Training in psycho-social skills could be used as part of the well-being program to improve the mental health of urban bus drivers. It is also expected that these trainings by focusing on cognitive and behavioral components will have a positive effect on improving the performance of bus drivers, as well ad the efficiency of the transportation system.
Keywords
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