Introduction: Study period is time that can accompany people with anxiety challenges and affect their academic performance, so effective interpersonal communication skills training can make this course more effective. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate effectiveness of effective interpersonal communication training on cognitive-emotional regulation, academic vitality and psychological hardiness of nursing students in Islamic Azad University of Ahvaz Branch.
Methods: This study was a semi-experimental pre-test and post-test with control group. The population included all nursing students of Islamic Azad University of Ahvaz branch in 2015-16 academic years. From them 40 Pearson were selected through simple convenience sampling method. To collect data, Cognitive-Emotional Regulation Questionnaire, Academic Vitality Questionnaire and Psychological Hardiness Questionnaire were used. The experimental group received training on interpersonal communication in 8 sessions of 90 minutes.
Results: Multivariate analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) results showed that the mean scores of adjustable cognitive emotion regulation (F = 21.14; P = 0.004), inconsistent cognitive emotion regulation
(F = 16.75; P = 0.004), academic vitality (F = 32.11; P = 0.002) and psychological hardiness
(F = 14.77; P = 0.001) were significantly different in the pretest and post-test of the two groups.
Conclusions: This study showed that effective interpersonal communication education has an impact on improving the cognitive adjustment of emotion-oriented adjustment, academic vitality and psychological hardiness and reducing the maladaptive cognitive-emotional regulation of nursing students. Based on this, education professionals should pay close attention to developing interpersonal communication skills as curriculum in order to improve mental health of students.