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Abstract Introduction Internet addiction disorder has reportedly become an important cause of health and social problems. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy for internet addiction symptoms, quality of life, and mental health of students with internet addiction. Methods This was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest measures and a control group. The statistical population of the study consisted of all students at Tehran universities in the academic year of 2018-19. The target group was selected through an internet addiction test and a clinical interview using a targeted sampling method and was divided into experimental and control groups by randomization. The experimental group participated in fifteen 90-minute cognitive-behavioral group therapy sessions. Before, immediately after, and 3 months after the treatment, the internet addiction symptoms of both groups were evaluated to assess mental health with the IAT, quality of life (QOL), and SCL-90-R questionnaires. Data were analyzed with ANCOVA analysis using SPSS Statistics 20 software. Results After treatment, cognitive-behavioral therapy groups showed reductions in internet addiction scores (p < 0.05). Results showed that the cognitive-behavioral group therapy was effective for improving quality of life (p < 0.05) and mental illnesses (p < 0.05) in students with internet addiction. Conclusions Cognitive-behavioral group therapy can enhance awareness and mental health of students with internet addiction. Therefore, this intervention can be used as a beneficial treatment to reduce internet addiction symptoms and improve the condition of people with behavioral addictions such as internet dependency.

One of the objectives of any educational endeavor is helping students to adopt a set of personal goals for their achievement. This is known as personal best (PB) referring to personalized goals or standards of excellence that match or exceed one's prior best in the academic context. It is also believed that PB goals can fluctuate in line with other academic-associated factors. The aim of the present study is to scrutinize these goals in association with students' resilience and language achievement. In other words, this study elucidated how EFL learners' PB and resilience influence language achievement. To do so, 173 students studying in two private language institutes and a university completed two questionnaires. The former was PB scale designed by Martin (2006) measuring specific, challenging, competitively self-referenced, and self- improvement goals. It was then translated and validated by the present researchers. The latter was the resilience scale containing five dimensions of perceived happiness, empathy, sociability, persistence, and self-regulation. The questionnaire was designed and validated by Kim and Kim (2016) and then translated and validated in this study. The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrated the validity of the Persian versions of the scales. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) also indicated that PB is a positive and significant predictor of resilience. Moreover, it was found that language achievement is predicted by both PB and resilience.

Teachers in higher education domain play a decisive role in advancing economic developments as well as nurturing the well-being of the societies. Thus, the issue of university instructors’ commitment and the factors influencing its development should be a compelling priority for higher education administrations. The present study aims to extend the research on teacher organizational commitment by investigating the contribution of job motivation and emotion regulation to teacher commitment at higher education. To this purpose, 135 English as a foreign language (EFL) instructors from different higher education institutes and universities took part in this study. They were requested to complete a battery of three questionnaires: Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers (WTMST), and Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Findings demonstrated that both emotion regulation and motivation had a positive significant correlation with teacher organizational commitment. Moreover, findings obtained via regression analysis showed that among job motivation components, identified regulation was the best contributor of teacher organizational commitment. Also, among the subscales of emotion regulation, reappraisal strategy was a better predictor of teacher organizational commitment. Findings are discussed in details with respect to the implications for both theory and practice in higher education.