Volume 6, Issue 3 (Vol6,No3(21) 2025)
2025, 6(3): 442-461 |
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Dolati A A, Dehghani H, Heidari Laghab E. (2025). Designing and Evaluating of the Effectiveness of a Self-Care Behavior Promotion Program for Elementary School Students. Journal of Childhood Health and Education. 6(3), 442-461. doi:10.32598/JECHE.6.3.358.1
URL: http://jeche.ir/article-1-326-en.html
URL: http://jeche.ir/article-1-326-en.html
1- Department of Educational Management, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.
2- Department of Educational Sciences, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran.
3- Department of Theology, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.
2- Department of Educational Sciences, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran.
3- Department of Theology, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.
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Introduction
In the modern educational context, having the necessary information and knwoeldge of students' self-care ability is important. The elementary school period is the most crucial stage for institutionalizing sustainable self-care behaviors, that can affect academic success and mental health in adulthood. Neglecting self-care education to school-aged children complicates educational programs. Self-care is a fundamental life skill, encompassing conscious behaviors to maintain health. The rise in chronic diseases doubles the necessity of addressing healthy life style education and self-care behaviors. This research aimed to design and evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive educational program to promote self-care behaviors in Iranian elementary school students.
Research Methods
This mixed-method study utilized an exploratory sequential approach. In the qualitative phase, the related concepts were extracted by interviewing 22 professors and experts who were selected using a purposive sampling method until reaching data saturation. The quantitative phase which was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design, 57 participants, including 33 girls and 24 boys, were selected from among the first and second-grade elementary students in Semnan, Iran (N=20,600), via cluster sampling. The intervention, the self-care behavior promotion program, was provided at 17 sessions based on Bandura's social cognitive theory (SCT) for six weeks. The instrument was a researcher-made self-care questionnaire (with 80 items and 16 components) whose validity was confirmed by experts and internal consistency was verified based on Cronbach's Alpha of 0.88. It had a composite reliability> 0.70. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of covariance.
Results
The findings from the qualitative phase successfully led to the extraction of a comprehensive self-care model with 16 distinct self-care components: digital, financial, environmental, physical, sexual, emotional/psychological, social, spiritual, artificial, metaversal, virtual social, genetic, microbiome, sustainable, intergenerational, and neurological. The quantitative phase confirmed the intervention’s effectiveness. After controlling pre-test scores, the educational intervention caused a statistically significant increase in all components of self-care behaviors in the experimental group compared to the control group (P<0.001, effect size >0.91). The within-group comparison in the experimental group also showed significant improvement with a large effect size (0.993).
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. The theoretical model was a unique, expanded conceptual framework for self-care in childhood. The practical model showed the program's ability to contribute to the elementary school students’ development as “good humans.” Consequently, the program, integrating modern self-care skills, should be used to prevent the epidemic of chronic diseases and unhealthy lifestyles in childhood. We recommend the Iranian Ministry of Education to integrate the 16-component self-care model of this study into the elementary school curriculum and provide specialized workshops for parents and teachers. Future research should include long-term follow-up phases to assess the behavior sustainability and construct validity of the model using a larger sample size.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
The study adhered to all ethical principles. All parents of children signed a written informed consent form, and confidentiality was maintained.
Funding
This research is part of a research project funded by the General Directorate of Education of Semnan Province.
Authors contributions
Conceptualization, methodology, design, data analysis, review & editing: Ali Akbar Dolati; Hadi Dehghani: Methodology and literature review; Ebrahim Heidari Laghab: data collection and analysis.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all participants as well as Ms. Arab Kermani (a teacher in Shahed Boys’ School in Semnan) and Ms. Soltani (a teacher in Valiasr Girls’ School in Semnan) for their assistance.
In the modern educational context, having the necessary information and knwoeldge of students' self-care ability is important. The elementary school period is the most crucial stage for institutionalizing sustainable self-care behaviors, that can affect academic success and mental health in adulthood. Neglecting self-care education to school-aged children complicates educational programs. Self-care is a fundamental life skill, encompassing conscious behaviors to maintain health. The rise in chronic diseases doubles the necessity of addressing healthy life style education and self-care behaviors. This research aimed to design and evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive educational program to promote self-care behaviors in Iranian elementary school students.
Research Methods
This mixed-method study utilized an exploratory sequential approach. In the qualitative phase, the related concepts were extracted by interviewing 22 professors and experts who were selected using a purposive sampling method until reaching data saturation. The quantitative phase which was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design, 57 participants, including 33 girls and 24 boys, were selected from among the first and second-grade elementary students in Semnan, Iran (N=20,600), via cluster sampling. The intervention, the self-care behavior promotion program, was provided at 17 sessions based on Bandura's social cognitive theory (SCT) for six weeks. The instrument was a researcher-made self-care questionnaire (with 80 items and 16 components) whose validity was confirmed by experts and internal consistency was verified based on Cronbach's Alpha of 0.88. It had a composite reliability> 0.70. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of covariance.
Results
The findings from the qualitative phase successfully led to the extraction of a comprehensive self-care model with 16 distinct self-care components: digital, financial, environmental, physical, sexual, emotional/psychological, social, spiritual, artificial, metaversal, virtual social, genetic, microbiome, sustainable, intergenerational, and neurological. The quantitative phase confirmed the intervention’s effectiveness. After controlling pre-test scores, the educational intervention caused a statistically significant increase in all components of self-care behaviors in the experimental group compared to the control group (P<0.001, effect size >0.91). The within-group comparison in the experimental group also showed significant improvement with a large effect size (0.993).
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. The theoretical model was a unique, expanded conceptual framework for self-care in childhood. The practical model showed the program's ability to contribute to the elementary school students’ development as “good humans.” Consequently, the program, integrating modern self-care skills, should be used to prevent the epidemic of chronic diseases and unhealthy lifestyles in childhood. We recommend the Iranian Ministry of Education to integrate the 16-component self-care model of this study into the elementary school curriculum and provide specialized workshops for parents and teachers. Future research should include long-term follow-up phases to assess the behavior sustainability and construct validity of the model using a larger sample size.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
The study adhered to all ethical principles. All parents of children signed a written informed consent form, and confidentiality was maintained.
Funding
This research is part of a research project funded by the General Directorate of Education of Semnan Province.
Authors contributions
Conceptualization, methodology, design, data analysis, review & editing: Ali Akbar Dolati; Hadi Dehghani: Methodology and literature review; Ebrahim Heidari Laghab: data collection and analysis.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all participants as well as Ms. Arab Kermani (a teacher in Shahed Boys’ School in Semnan) and Ms. Soltani (a teacher in Valiasr Girls’ School in Semnan) for their assistance.
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Type of Study: Research |
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Received: 2025/03/7 | Accepted: 2025/10/7 | Published: 2025/12/16
Received: 2025/03/7 | Accepted: 2025/10/7 | Published: 2025/12/16
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