Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Teacher empowerment is thought to improve student learning by fostering teaching
quality. Therefore, the purpose of this study is investigating the relationship between empowerment
and self‑efficacy of Iranian English as Foreign Language teachers.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study is an experimental study; the population of the
study includes all the English language teachers of the universities of Ilam, Iran. Among whom by
random sampling, the sample which was consisted of 60 teachers were selected. Participants in
this study answered the School Participant Empowerment Scale questionnaire (Short and Rinehart,
1992) as the instrument of the study. The Pearson product‑moment correlation was computed to
determine the relationship between teacher empowerment and teacher self‑efficacy.
RESULTS: The results showed that there was a positive correlation between teacher empowerment
and their self‑efficacy (r = 0.55, P <  0.01) and differences among teachers’ self‑efficacy is not
significant according to age (r = −0.14, P = 0.23).
CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results of the study, empowerment and self‑efficacy have interactive
relationships; i.e. self‑efficacy in teachers leads to empowerment and empowerment in teachers
leads to self‑efficacy.

Abstract BACKGROUND: The importance of spirituality and spiritual growth in humans has been increasingly
taken to attention by psychologists and mental health professionals. In this study, we aimed to
investigate the relationship between the tendency to aggression and individual resilience also
considering the role of mediator of spirituality in academic students by path analysis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross‑sectional study was conducted using structural equation
method (SEM). The target population consisted all of undergraduate academic students in Ilam, Iran
University of Applied Sciences, in 2018. Participants included 200 people whom were selected by
stratified random sampling. Data collection tools were demographic, Buss and Perry aggression,
spirituality assessment, and resiliency of Connor and Davidson questionnaire. In this study, bivariate
analysis was used to determine the directionality correlation between the study variables.
RESULTS: The results showed that there was a significant and positive correlation between
spirituality and resilience (r = 154% r = 83%). Furthermore, there was a negative and nonsignificant
relationship between aggression with resiliency (r = −122% P = 101). In addition, there was no
significant correlation between the aggression and spirituality (r = 0.05%, P = 0.942). The results of
SEM showed that spirituality and aggression can predict about 20% of the variations in the degree
of resilience in academic students. Accordingly, the results of SEM spirituality in an indirect path
reduce the aggression and thus increase the resilience (r = 0.102).
CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed the effect of spirituality on increasing the level of
resilience and also positive mediator role of spirituality between aggression and resiliency.