BackgroundNatural disasters, both expected and unexpected, usually cause widespread injuries and destruction with a large number of survivors, including children. Several studies have shown that children may develop posttraumatic stress disorder after exposure to disasters such as an earthquake.ObjectivesThis study aimed to evaluate the screening abilities of the University of California at Los Angeles Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Index for DSM-IV (Revision 1) (UCLA PTSD for DSM-IV) among Iranian school-aged children.Patients and MethodsTwenty months after the Qeshm Island 6.1-magnitude earthquake in 2008, we screened 50 students aged between 7 and 12 years for posttraumatic stress disorder using the UCLA PTSD INDEX for DSM-IV. A Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV criteria was used as the gold standard.ResultsThe internal consistency for all the scales was good and Cronbach’s coefficient for the overall items was 0.76. The sensitivity of this questionnaire was high (0.96), while its specificity was moderate (0.50).ConclusionsThe study findings showed that the Iranian version of UCLA PTSD Index for DS-MIV-R was appropriate for screening PTSD in children.

The purpose of the review article is to deepen the understanding of cultural diversity in terms of cognitive processes to avoid cultural conflicts such as misunderstanding and miscommunication. In this review, we found that there is a link that connected some cognitive processes with culture from various perspectives in our recent findings. The overall research findings suggested that there are pieces of evidence of how culture can play a role and differ from other cultures in cognitive processes such as perception, attention, memory, and creativity. Evaluation and the measurement of the culture and cognition by the researchers in the studies were included in this review together with the results of the findings and some future implications for further research proposed by the researchers of the study in some studies reviewed. We will also review how people of various cultures adapt their cognition which differs them from other cultures in some studies. In conclusion, we hope that more factors should be considered for cross-cultural studies in cognition, and further critical interpretation is needed in this review article to made people realize the diversity of cognition in culture and accept it.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of study skills training on the qualitative academic achievement of girl high school students. This study was conducted by using an experimental design with pretest, posttest, and follow-up with the control group. The participants were 32 students from girl high school students of Tehran which were selected by cluster random sampling from girl high schools and then randomly assigned into control and experimental groups (Each group consisted of 16 students). The instruments used were Dortaj Qualitative Academic Achievement Questionnaire and Motevalli Study Skills Training Module. The experimental group received 8 sessions of psycho-educational group therapy and the control group did not receive any training. Two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was utilized for the analysis of data. Results revealed that there was a significant increase in qualitative academic achievement between pretest with post-test and follow-up among the experimental group. Moreover, there was a significant increase in qualitative academic achievement between post-test and follow-up in the experimental group with the control group. Additionally, the results showed that there is a significant increase in self-efficacy, planning, and motivation and also a significant decrease in emotional effects and lack of outcome control. In conclusion, the results of this study indicated that on the basis of deficit theory using learning and study skills training can lead to enhance student's skills to improve qualitative academic achievement. Further studies are required to examine whether exposing students to study skills training programs can lead them to enhance their qualitative academic achievement.   Keyword: Motivation Study Skills Training, Planning, Qualitative Academic Achievement, Self-efficacy.

A total of 240 students were selected as study samples through convenient random sampling. Data was obtained from questionnaire forms and processed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17. Results of multiple regression tests showed that four predictors contributed 13.3 per cent. The major predictor which contributed the most was student objectives with a contribution of 6.8 per cent, the second largest predictor was planning which contributed 3.5 per cent, while the third largest predictor that is student tasks and enrichment activities contributed 2.10 per cent and the last predictor, student strategies and recitation methods contributed 0.90 per cent. These findings revealed the possibility that there could be several other factors which affected or influenced the impact on student conduct, which was not accounted for in this study. On the whole, there are three main recommendations which look at the role of the management and administrator, the role of the teachers and students which require mutual cooperation for this program to succeed. In conclusion, a more comprehensive evaluation on implementation needs to be conducted to produce consistent results.