A hope-building course may help high-school boys put off schoolwork less
HelpedThe short version
Boys who had hope sessions put things off less than boys with no training, and this held three months later.
- 40
- high-school boys in Iran
- Randomised
- groups picked at random
- Self-rated
- people rated themselves
- 2 tools
- tested
The study
Who took part
40 boys in a high school in Sanandaj, Iran, in the 2014-15 school year. They were the 40 highest scorers, out of 285 students at one school who filled in a questionnaire on putting things off.
What they did
Twenty boys had eight weekly sessions of 90 minutes each. The sessions taught hope, using a well-known theory. They covered setting clear goals and finding several routes to each goal. They also covered breaking routes into small steps and rehearsing the steps in the mind. The other twenty boys had no training during the study, but were given the same sessions afterwards.
What happened
Putting things off fell in the training group and stayed about the same in the other group. The gap was still there three months later. The paper calls the gap clear, but its tables do not fully agree, so the size is uncertain.
What the study found
- Helped
Boys who had hope sessions put things off less than boys with no training, and this held three months later.
- Action: Set a specific goaltested
- Action: Split a big task into piecestested
- Rule: Practise with a groupused
Small randomised trial of 40 high-school boys in Iran · vs boys who got no training during the study · they rated themselves · ⚠ numbers unreliable
How solid is this?
- Groups picked at random
- Small group
- People rated themselves
- Numbers unreliable
Source
Effectiveness of cognitive hope-promotion training in reducing academic procrastination among male upper-secondary students (2014)
