Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Abstract
Background & Objectives: Adolescence is one of the most important stages of human life. This period provides growth opportunities both physically and spiritually in terms of cognitive and social adequacy, independence, and self-esteem. Among the problems frequently seen among students and teenagers is the inability to direct their learning and face academic problems. Among these problems is academic self-regulation. Self-regulation consists of two factors: self-cognition and motivation. Self-cognition consists of two parts: self-control and planning. The motivational factor consists of self-efficacy and effort. The formation of self-discipline depends not just on the individual's will, and various factors can be involved, including self-confidence. Different psychological elements influence students' academic and educational performance; among them is psychological toughness, and today, they have a valuable place in the studies of psychologists. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of psychological toughness training on self-confidence and academic self-discipline of second-year high school boys.
Methods: The present research method was quasi-experimental, employing a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population included all students referred to the Psychological Counseling Center of the Department of Education in 2021-2022 to solve educational and psychological problems. An available random sampling method was used to select the research sample. In this research, after the announcement of the call from among the volunteer students who wanted to participate in the project and qualified to enter the meetings, 30 eligible male students who obtained the lowest scores in the Self-Confidence and Academic Self-Regulation questionnaire were selected. By random assignment method, 15 people were assigned to the experimental group and 15 to the control group. The research tools included the Eysenck Self-Confidence Scale (Eysenck & Wilson, 1976) and the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (Ryan & Connell, 1989). After the pretest, psychological toughness training interventions were implemented in ten 60-minute sessions, and at the end of the sessions, the subjects of each group were given a posttest. The data were analyzed using SPSS22 software and multivariate covariance analysis at a significance level 0.05.
Results: The results showed that the average self-confidence scores in the experimental group after removing the pretest effect were higher in the posttest compared to the control group (p=0.021). Also, the average academic self-regulation scores in the experimental group after removing the effect of the pretest increased in the posttest compared to the control group (p=0.024).
Conclusion: Based on the research findings, psychological toughness intervention effectively increases students' self-confidence and internal self-regulation.