Background and Aim In schools, it is important to have the necessary information and awareness about the students' self-care levels. The present study aimed to design and evaluate the effectiveness of selfcare behavior promotion program for elementary school students.
Research Methods This is mixed-method study with exploratory sequential design. The participants in the qualitative phase were 22 professors from Farhangian University in Semnan, Iran, with expertise in the field of self-care behaviors, who were selected via purposive sampling and using the theoretical saturation rule. They participated in a semi-structured interview. The participants in the quantitative phase included 57 students including 33 girls and 24 boys, who were selected from the two elementary schools (one boys’ school and one girls’ school) in Semnan, Iran, via cluster sampling in 2024 -2025. They were divided into intervention and control groups, and completed a researcher-made questionnaire before and after intervention. The intervention group received the self-care behavior promotion program at 17 sessions based on Bandura's social cognitive theory (SCT) for six weeks.
Results The results for the qualitative phase showed that self-care in childhood had 16 components (digital, financial, environmental, physical, sexual, emotional and psychological, social, spiritual, artificial, metaversal, virtual social, genetic, microbiome, sustainable, intergenerational and neurological). In the quantitative part, it was found that the educational program led to a significant increase in the self-care skills of students in the intervention group across all components (P<0.001).
Conclusion The developed self-care behavior promotion program based on the SCT model is highly effective in improving the self-care ability of elementary school students in Iran.
Type of Study:
Research |
Subject:
Special Received: 2025/03/7 | Accepted: 2025/10/7 | Published: 2025/12/16