mohammad esmaeil riahi

Turkemans is one of the ethnic groups who live in north east of Iran. The majority of them lives in Golestan and North Khorasan Provinces. About half of Golestan province population is Turkemans. At first, we try to measure national identity tendency among them Second ...

Introduction: Social capital has potential effects on reproductive health and childbearing behaviors. However, there is limited information about its relationship with childbearing. Objective: This study aimed to explore female healthcare providers' experiences of childbearing based on the social capital theory. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study was conducted from July 2018 to February 2019 on 15 female healthcare workers in healthcare centers in Babol City, Iran. The participants were purposively recruited with maximum variation respecting their age, work experience, educational level, and occupation. The study data were collected through 15 semi-structured interviews and analyzed using directed qualitative content analysis. Results: The participants were female healthcare providers working in hospitals or healthcare centers of the University of Medical Science. Their mean±SD age and work experience were 35±8.25 and 10±7.5 years, respectively. The extracted codes du...

The main purpose of this study is to describe gender differences in body image and to explore the influences of psychosocial factors on it. The study has been conducted via survey method and data collected by self-administered questionnaire. The universe of the study was all students of the University of Mazandaran in 2010. Overall, 360 students (130 male and 230 female, M= 22) were chosen through availability sampling method. Descriptive results of the study show a significant gender difference in the body image satisfaction, that is; young females are more satisfied bodily than males. Moreover, analytical results indicate that; such variables as appeareance orientation (body investment), body surveillance, body shame and self esteem could predict body image satisfaction among total sample, significantly. However, there is a significant gender difference regarding body shame, namely; in addition to self-esteem and body investment, females’ body image satisfaction was predicted by level of body shame (as a subscale of self-objectification). This may reflect the high pressure of social expectation about ideal body on the females. Furthermore, there is a gender difference on the level of body investment, showing that compred to males, young females report greater investment on their bodies and engage in extensive grooming behaviors. Finally, self esteem results to higher levels of both body image satisfaction and body areas satisfaction.

Trust is one of the most important ongoing topics in social capital research and its importance has long been emphasized by social and political theorists from Locke and Tocqueville to Putnam and civil society’s theorists. The present research seeks to study the impact of media consumption (local and satellite televisions) on the social trust. The universe of the study was all of the enrolled students of Mazandaran University which 400 students through proportionate stratified sampling method have been selected as sample of the study. The required data has been gathered by self administered questionnaire and data were analyzed via SPSS software. Research findings indicate that while there is no significant relationship between watching local TV and social trust, watching satellite TV is related to social trust, negatively. Furthermore, there is positive relationship between watching local TV and the participation in voluntary associations, positive attitude towards law administration and justice feeling, but watching satellite TV has negative relationship with the participation in voluntary associations, reciprocity norms, and justice feelings, as well as positive relationship with opportunism. Moreover, some variables such as the participation in voluntary associations, reciprocity norms, positive attitude toward law administration, and justice feeling all were positively, and opportunism was negatively related to social trust. In addition, the results of multiple regression analysis indicate that after the variable of justice feeling which has the most significant impact on the social trust, the variables of reciprocity norms and opportunism are placed in the next rankings.

This study aimed to investigate social and cultural factors affecting students' attitudes toward violence against women. This study was conducted using a survey method among 400 male students of public universities in Mazandaran province who were selected based on stratified probabilistic sampling method and using theories of Liberal Feminism and Social Learning. The results revealed that the majority of participants (72/5%) had a negative, more than 26% of them had a medium, and more than 1% of them had a positive attitude toward violence against women. Also, the results of multiple regression analysis show that the independent variables of perceived norm qualities of significant others, traditional attitudes towards women, perceived reaction qualities of significant others, perceived rewards, and traditional marital role expectations, respectively have the greatest impact on the dependent variable. In general, the results confirm the propositions of the theories of liberal feminism and social learning and they show that the issue of violence against women and the attitudes toward it, is not inevitable, rather it is created under

Background and Objective: Medical malpractice lawsuit can persuade physicians to be more careful in practice but each file may have many adverse consequences for doctors and patient and society. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of medical malpractice lawsuit on doctors and their practice. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study conducted by Problem-centered interview and convenience sampling. Participants were 15 physicians who were summoned to Dispute Resolution Council. After declaring the informed consent, a Semi-structured interview was conducted with each doctor. Data was analyzed by encoding and categorization. Results: Psychological consequences include anxiety and depression;   professional effects include time loss and absence from work, social consequence like loss of reputation, family members' concern were the deleterious effects of complaints against physicians. Also changing the practice to defensive medicine is an important consequence...

Background and Objective: Medical malpractice lawsuit can persuade physicians to be more careful in practice but each file may have many adverse consequences for doctors and patient and society. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of medical malpractice lawsuit on doctors and their practice. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study conducted by Problem-centered interview and convenience sampling. Participants were 15 physicians who were summoned to Dispute Resolution Council. After declaring the informed consent, a Semi-structured interview was conducted with each doctor. Data was analyzed by encoding and categorization. Results: Psychological consequences include anxiety and depression;   professional effects include time loss and absence from work, social consequence like loss of reputation, family members’ concern were the deleterious effects of complaints against physicians. Also changing the practice to defensive medicine is an important consequence of ...

Background: The epidemic of obesity has turned into a major global health challenge. Environmental and social factors such as social capital, can significantly affect obesity. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship of social capital with overweight and obesity among female health-care workers. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018 on 680 female health-care workers who were randomly selected from healthcare settings affiliated to Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and the Workplace Social Capital (WSC) questionnaire. The SPSS Version 21 was employed to analyze the data through conducting the independent-sample t and the chi-square tests as well as the linear and the logistic regression analyses at a significance level of less than 0.05. Results: Linear regression analysis revealed that age, marital status, satisfaction with economic status, and structural social capital were significant p...

The present study seeks to describe the acceptance rate of gender-related stereotypes (GRS) by young males and females, and also to explain the impact of some socio-familial factors on it. The study is conducted via survey method. 425 young males and females (out of 10944) who were under training in the Vocational Training Centers in the Mazandaran province have been selected randomly by means of multi stage random sampling method and completed a self-administered questionnaire. Gender-related stereotypes is considered as dependent variable and some socio-familial factors have been treated as independent variables. The findings of the study showed that there were significant gender differences in the acceptance rate of GRS. However, instrumental traits such as; active, full of energy, independent, aggressive, manager, strong, and powerful have been attributed to men, whereas such expressive traits as emotional, sensitive, attractive, peaceful, anxious, disturbed, dependent, forbearing and patient have been ascribed to women. Furthermore, there were significant associations between the acceptance rate of GRS with gender, place of residence, level of education, family income, and severity of parents. Finally, the multivariate regression analysis of data revealed that the acceptance rate of GRS was under influence of marital status, socio-economic status of family, traditional gender-related attitude, and traditional job-related attitude.

The present study seeks to describe the degree and reasons of agreement or disagreement with advancement and doing Temporary Marriage (TM), as well as to explore the association between socio-demographic variables and agreement or disagreement with TM. The universe of study was all of 18-49 years old men and women who were residents of Babol and Babolsar cities in the Mazandaran Province. The subjects of the study were 336 respondents who have been selected on the basis of availability sampling

Background and objectives: Although Women’s health in the physical, mental and social aspects are the most important foundation of community health, but there is a little attention to women›s social health in comparison with the other aspects. The aim of this study is investigation some of effective factors on women’s social health. Material and Methods: This is a review study. The articles in Persian scientifi research journals indexed databases including SID, Magrian, Iran medex, google scholar ,Noormags and Elmnet without time limitation and with the overall keyword «social health», and more detailed keywords such as «social participation, social adaptation, social acceptance, social solidarity, social prosperity» as social health aspects, and «women» has been searched. Totally, 134 articles has been chosen and fially 20 articles approved in accordance with the objectives of the study. Results: The results showed that there was a signifiant relationship between social health and ...

Background: The workplace social capital is one of the important features of clinical work environment that improves the productivity and quality of services and safety through trust and social participation. Evaluation of workplace social capital requires a valid and reliable scale. The short-form workplace social capital questionnaire developed by Kouvonen has long been used to evaluate the workplace social capital. Objective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the questionnaire among a group of female Iranian health care workers. Methods: The Persian version of the short-form questionnaire of workplace social capital was finalized after translation and back-translation. 500 female health care workers completed the questionnaire. Then, the content validity and the construct validity of the questionnaire were assessed. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by Cronbach's α, θ, and McDonald's Ω. The construct reliability and ICC were...

Background Fertility, in addition to the biomedical aspect, is phenomena of social, economic and demographic changes. Social network were considered for understanding fertility behaviors and changes in the levels of fertility. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between social capital and childbirth behaviors in Iranian women employees. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 on 536 women health care workers who randomly selected from health care setting Babol/Iran. Data were collected using demographic, childbearing behavior and social capital questionnaires. The SPSS-21 software was employed to analysis the data at a significant level of 0.05. Results The results of the study showed that, there was significant relationship between number of pregnancy and social capital (P = 0.039). Furthermore, social capital has a significant relationship with the time of pregnancy (P = 0.043), the time of pregnancy in women with high social capital was obser...

Introduction One of the features of society and even the human nature is to seek safety and comfort in religion. Fear of death and sufferings, make humans in need of faith in God. As one of the most important social institutions in formulating meaning of life, religion has always had a special place. It is a social as well as divine phenomenon, and as it is mentioned in the holy books, it is sent to save humanity from life's difficulties and tragedies. According to the socio-cultural structure of Iranian society, religious identity has a prominent place among other forms of identities (national, ethnic, gender, etc.). With the development of communication technologies and the emergence of mass media such as newspapers, television and cinema, different aspects of our social activities are affected by these phenomenon. Indeed, it is an agreed-upon fact that in the cotemporary world, the formation of our personality and social identity has been assigned to mass media. In this regard, television has undoubtedly a prominent position. According to Giddens, the advent of television strongly influenced everyday-life patterns, because many people adjust their activities around certain television programs. The entrance of television into Iranian society is almost a new event, but even in this short time, its deep and lasting effects on social relationships and the Iranian-Islamic identity can be seen clearly. The TV provide us with an overall framework and attitude towards social life, and influence our social identity, specially our religious identity. Due to its importance in providing this framework, we need to evaluate its consequences and impacts on social relationships. From this perspective, not only is the TV a mere entertainment provider, but also an active information and communication tool which has lasting effects on reproduction of culture and collective identity of the society. Thus, any study of television effects on religious identity is important. In addition, to identify the rate and type of television us [...]

Introduction One of the features of society and even the human nature is to seek safety and comfort in religion. Fear of death and sufferings, make humans in need of faith in God. As one of the most important social institutions in formulating meaning of life, religion has always had a special place. It is a social as well as divine phenomenon, and as it is mentioned in the holy books, it is sent to save humanity from life's difficulties and tragedies. According to the socio-cultural structure of Iranian society, religious identity has a prominent place among other forms of identities (national, ethnic, gender, etc.). With the development of communication technologies and the emergence of mass media such as newspapers, television and cinema, different aspects of our social activities are affected by these phenomenon. Indeed, it is an agreed-upon fact that in the cotemporary world, the formation of our personality and social identity has been assigned to mass media. In this regard, television has undoubtedly a prominent position. According to Giddens, the advent of television strongly influenced everyday-life patterns, because many people adjust their activities around certain television programs. The entrance of television into Iranian society is almost a new event, but even in this short time, its deep and lasting effects on social relationships and the Iranian-Islamic identity can be seen clearly. The TV provide us with an overall framework and attitude towards social life, and influence our social identity, specially our religious identity. Due to its importance in providing this framework, we need to evaluate its consequences and impacts on social relationships. From this perspective, not only is the TV a mere entertainment provider, but also an active information and communication tool which has lasting effects on reproduction of culture and collective identity of the society. Thus, any study of television effects on religious identity is important. In addition, to identify the rate and type of television us [...]

The present study aims to describe the rate of premarital skills among daughters of Martyrs and Veterans in Mazandaran Province, as well as to identify the impact of parents’ marital skills on their girls’ skills. The universe of the study is all of single, older than 15 years old girls who their fathers were martyr or veteran. 366 young girls have been selected as a sample of the study via two-steps proportional random sampling method. Descriptive results indicate that rate of premarital skills is less than expected level (9.4 out of 20 score). However, these girls were more skilled in communication and anger control skills, as well as problem solving than marriage expectation and fertility skills. On the basis of regression analysis, rate of premarital skills among young girls can be predicted significantly (〖R2〗^ = .45), by independent variables, such as; “receiving direct education on marital life from parents”, “being younger girl”, “having higher education level”, “having richer fathers financially”, and “observing less negative behaviors of their fathers” at home. These findings imply on necessity of invest on the teaching of premarital skills to young girls, especially in order to regulating their marriage expectation and increasing fertility knowledge.

The main purpose of this study was the sociological investigation of the influential factors on the rate of tendency toward divorce in Kermanshah City. The combination of Homogamy theory, Exchange theory, and Network theory has been selected as the theoretical framework of the study. The study has been conducted via survey method and data collected by questionnaire. The universe of the study was all of the couples who had referred to Family Court in Kermanshah City to offer/submit their divorce application during the 2006. Overall, 364 persons (182 men and 182 women) were chosen through systematic random sampling method as subjects of the study. Dependent variable was the rate of tendency toward divorce, and impacts of some independent variables on it, has been measured by means of statistical techniques, based on SPSS. The results of the study showed that almost half of the couples reported medium tendency toward divorce, compared with nearly 9 percent of them who had declared strong tendency. Applying Multivariate Regression Analysis, it has been appeared that tendency toward divorce was under direct influence of such variables as disability in satisfying mate’s expectations, having positive imagination about divorce outcomes, and interference of others in couple’s marital life. Furthermore, such variable as age-related differences, educational differences, and opinion-related differences of couples had indirect effects on tendency toward divorce, through increasing disability in satisfying mate’s expectations. Interference of others in couple’s marital life was the strongest predictor of tendency toward divorce.

The present study seeks to describe the degree and reasons of agreement or disagreement with advancement and doing Temporary Marriage (TM), as well as to explore the association between socio-demographic variables and agreement or disagreement with TM. The universe of study was all of 18-49 years old men and women who were residents of Babol and Babolsar cities in the Mazandaran Province. The subjects of the study were 336 respondents who have been selected on the basis of availability sampling method. This descriptive study is conducted via survey method and data has been collected through self-administered questionnaire.
Descriptive findings of the study show that only 9.4 percent of respondents were agree with advancement of TM as a solution for marriage problem of youth in Iran. Furthermore, 26.5 percent of them were inclining to doing TM personally, as opposed to 58.3 percent who were not inclined. The most important reasons for agreement with advancement of TM were helping to; prevention of sexual deviance, decreasing financial pressures on youth and achieving more knowledge about future mate by them for doing permanent marriage. But, abuse of women by men, weakening the foundations of family, and advancement of sexual deviance were the most important disagreement reasons. Morever, analytical findings show that men, employees, and high income individuals had more inclination for doing TM. It seems that there is a gap between religious purposes of TM with social acceptance of it by social agents.

Purpose: Many studies show that special type of socio-cultural beliefs about roles, tasks, and positions of males and females (gender-related attitude), can operate as an obstacle for full and effective participation of women in the development process. These kinds of attitudes are learned by children in the family and then institutionalized through other socialization agencies such as mass media and educational systems. Therefore, this study has been conducted to describe and explain gender differences in men and women's attitudes concerning roles, tasks, and positions of each gender, and also to identify influential factors –particularly socio-cultural and familial ones- on formation and expressing gender related attitude. Accordingly, the present study seeks to describe gender-related attitude of young men and women of Mazandaran province, and also to explain associations between this attitude and some socio-familial factors.
Method: The study is conducted via survey method; and data has been collected through self-administered questionnaire. The subjects of the study were 425 young men and women who were under training in the Vocational Training Centers in the Mazandaran province. Gender-related attitude is considered as dependent variable and measured with an investigator-made scale based on 12 questions concerning roles, tasks, and positions of men and women in the family and society. Some of these questions, for example, were about governing of important issues in the society, doing intellectual works, women employment, full obedience of women from men, management ability of women, etc. The overall reliability coefficient for the scale was .902, indicating very high internal consistency of the scale. Some socio-demographic and socio-familial factors (such as gender, place of residence, marital status,  age groups, level of education, employment status, job-related attitude, and type of parents' behavior at home) have been treated as independent variables. To analyze of collected data, SPSS (version.12) has been applied.
Findings: The findings of the study indicated that the respondents were young men and women (16-25 years old), who mainly were residents of urban areas, unmarried, and educated nearly between 10-12 years (up to Diploma). These respondents mainly were unemployed, belonged to large-size and low/medium socio-economic status families.
  Furthermore, the study concluded that there are some significant differences between men and women respondents concerning gender-related attitude; For instance, 57/9 percent of men as compared to 17/2 percent of women were agreed that important issues of society have to be deposited only to men; or 53/4 percent of men as compared to 8/6 percent of women were believed that women have to obey men in the personal and familial life. Furthermore, 20/8 percent of men as compared to 75/1 percent of women were disagreed that men managers are successful than women managers. These different distributions of beliefs concerning roles, tasks, and positions of each gender in the family and society, can be an index of different gender-related attitudes of young respondents.
  Overall, men as compared to women had reported more patriarchic attitudes (traditional attitude towards gender roles and relations). Namely, on the whole, men were believed that; 1) important issues of the society have to be governed by men; 2) women's ability in the intellectual activities, management, employment, settlement of personal and social problems is less than men; 3) women have to work at home as a housekeeper only, or in such jobs as teaching and nursing; and 4) finally women have to obey men in the personal and familial life. In contrast, women's beliefs concerning gender-related attitudes were mostly opposed to men; for example, they were believed that women can govern important issues in the society; their ability in intellectual activities, management, employment, settlement of personal and social problems is equal to men; doing housework is not only women's obligation and they can be successful in all kind of jobs; and finally women can disobey men.  Moreover, residents of rural areas and unmarried persons as compared to their counterparts in urban areas and married ones have reported more patriarchic attitude.
Applying T-test and ANOVA, some significant associations between gender-related attitude and some socio-demographic factors such as age groups, place of residence, marital status, level of education, and employment status have been observed. Finally, the results of multiple regression analysis showed that formation and expressing of gender-related attitude can be under influence of such variables as gender, job-related attitude, and type of parents' behavior at home. There was a very strong relationship (r= .739) between gender-related attitudes and these variables, and 54/5 percent of variations in dependent variable can be explained by these three independent variables. In the other words, young men, those respondents who were believed in traditional labor division (job-related attitude), and those respondents whom their parents were very severe and hard at home showed more patriarchic attitude than other respondents.
Discussion: Having patriarchy attitude can be considered as an obstacle to full usage of human resources, including women, in society for accessing to development.

The present study seeks to describe the acceptance rate of gender-related stereotypes (GRS) by young males and females, and also to explain the impact of some socio-familial factors on it. The study is conducted via survey method. 425 young males and females (out of 10944) who were under training in the Vocational Training Centers in the Mazandaran province have been selected randomly by means of multi stage random sampling method and completed a self-administered questionnaire. Gender-related stereotypes is considered as dependent variable and some socio-familial factors have been treated as independent variables.
  The findings of the study showed that there were significant gender differences in the acceptance rate of GRS. However, instrumental traits such as; active, full of energy, independent, aggressive, manager, strong, and powerful have been attributed to men, whereas such expressive traits as emotional, sensitive, attractive, peaceful, anxious, disturbed, dependent, forbearing and patient have been ascribed to women. Furthermore, there were significant associations between the acceptance rate of GRS with gender, place of residence, level of education, family income, and severity of parents. Finally, the multivariate regression analysis of data revealed that the acceptance rate of GRS was under influence of marital status, socio-economic status of family, traditional gender-related attitude, and traditional job-related attitude.

The present study has been conducted to discover associations between gender and patterns of sport activities among 303 university students in Mazandaran University. Respondents have been selected randomly and completed a self-administered questionnaire. The findings of the study indicated that 67 percent of students participated in sport activities, but male students were more active than female students. Favourite sports for male students were walking, football, swimming, light exercise, and body building; while female students were more concerned to such activities as light exercise, swimming, and volleyball, respectively. The most important reasons to participate in sport activities declared by male students were maintenance and enhancement of health status, acquisition of joy and fun, and to be fresh and active; while female students proceed to sport for reducing weight, fitness, and maintenance of health status. Finally, there have been positive associations between probability of sport participation and some psycho-social variables such as social support, health concern, and having athletes’ friends or family members.

Many scientific studies in medical sciences proved that there is a significant relationship between nutrition and disease. Unhealthy food patterns take important part in producing chronic diseases and also expose individual’s health to different risks. Furthermore, social scientists showed that dietary habits of individuals have significant association with some psycho-social and cultural factors. The present study seeks to describe and explain associations between patterns of dietary habits among men and women of Mazandaran University (Iran) and Panjab University (India), and several psycho-social  and cultural factors .The findings of this study show that there are strong and significant relationships between dietary habits and some variables such as gender,nationality(culture), SES of family, health concern, health knowledge, and health beliefs .Overall, women and Indian students as compared to men and Iranian students had shown healthier and more positive dietary habits, which in turn, could protect them from chronic, non- infectious diseases

Stress Process Paradigm (SPP) is configured in 1980’s to study the impacts of social factors on the production and distribution of stress related mental disorders. Over the past three decades, this paradigm could maintain its dominance in the field of sociological studies of stress. Stress process as a conceptual model is consisted of three main components: Stressors (social sources of stress production), Mediators (psycho-social factors which mediate stress), and Health outcomes (reactions to stress). According to SPP, all of the suitable and unsuitable life events are potentially the sources of stress production; though in terms of time sequence, it is possible to draw a spectrum from trauma to chronic stressors.  Furthermore, social support (structural or functional) and coping responses are the most important mediators of stress. Finally, reaction to stress is determined by socio-cultural factors, such as; emotions cultures, social norms, and social learning of emotions expression. SPP as a sociological framework is concentrated on the role of social structures and social contexts in the shaping the patterns of distribution of stress related mental disorders. 
The main purpose of present paper is to discussion about those issues which must be considered by sociologist when studying stress process. Since, the main strategy of social research in this field is to identify the connecting circles between social arrangements and individual stress, therefore the paper is trying to propose a conceptual as well as analytical framework, to assist the presentation and elaboration of sociology of stress in Iran.

The main purpose of this study is to describe gender differences in body image and to explore the influences of psychosocial factors on it. The study has been conducted via survey method and data collected by self-administered questionnaire. The universe of the study was all students of the University of Mazandaran in 2010. Overall, 360 students (130 male and 230 female, M= 22) were chosen through availability sampling method. Descriptive results of the study show a significant gender difference in the body image satisfaction, that is; young females are more satisfied bodily than males.
Moreover, analytical results indicate that; such variables as appeareance orientation (body investment), body surveillance, body shame and self esteem could predict body image satisfaction among total sample, significantly. However, there is a significant gender difference regarding body shame, namely; in addition to self-esteem and body investment, females’ body image satisfaction was predicted by level of body shame (as a subscale of self-objectification). This may reflect the high pressure of social expectation about ideal body on the females. Furthermore, there is a gender difference on the level of body investment, showing that compred to males, young females report greater investment on their bodies and engage in extensive grooming behaviors. Finally, self esteem results to higher levels of both body image satisfaction and body areas satisfaction.

The main purpose of this study is to explore the correlation between religion and mental health. Therefore, using some socio-psychological theories, the study seeks to investigate the relationships between religiosity, religious orientation, perceived social support, and optimism with mental health of university students.  The study has been conducted via survey method and data collected by self-administered questionnaire. The universe of the study was 7083 undergraduate students of the Mazandaran University. Overall, 405 students were chosen through proportional stratified random sampling method as subjects of the study. The descriptive results of the study showed that on the basis of GHQ-28, 55/7 percent of the students recognized as having proper mental health, while 44/3 percent of them suspected to mental disorders. In addition, almost 60 percent of the students reported high degree of religiosity and religious orientation of majority of them was external. Moreover, two-thirds of students enjoyed middle optimism and more than half of them, perceived high degree of social support. Furthermore, the results of the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed that mean numbers of mental health was significantly different by degree of religiosity, internal religious orientation, degree of optimism, and degree of social support. Applying multivariate regression analysis, however, it has been appeared that the degree of students’ mental health was under direct influence of such variables as perceived social support, degree of optimism, and internal religious orientation; while external religious orientation and degree of religiosity had indirect effects on the degree of students’ mental health, through increasing social support and optimism. The implication of the study is that internal religious orientation is the most effective factor to improve the mental health of students, as compared to degree of reliogisty and external religious orientation.

Objectives: The main objective of this study is to explore the relationship between "emotional perceived social support" and "mental health". Furthermore, the present study seeks to investigate the direct and indirect impacts of gender, religiosity, social class (as sources of social support) as well as social support on the mental health status.
Method: The study has been conducted via survey method and data collected by self-administered questionnaire. The universe of the study was 8593 undergraduate students of the Mazandaran University. Overall, 400 students were chosen through proportional stratified random sampling method as subjects of the study. Dependent variable was the mental health of students, which measured by SCL-25. Moreover, social support as an independent variable is measured by the multidimensional scale of perceived social support by Zimet (1988).
Findings: The findings of the study indicated that the respondents were young men (39 percent) and women (18-29 years old), who mainly were residents of dorms and unmarried. These respondents mainly were belonged to medium-sized and low/medium socio-economic status families. Furthermore, almost one-fifth of the students recognized as having proper mental health, while 4 percent of them suspected to mental disorders. Moreover, more than half of the students received high level of social support, and family was the most important source of receiving social support followed by "important Others" and "friends". To compare the mean of perceived social support revealed that female students and those who were belonged to higher social class enjoyed the higher levels of social support.
According to the main finding of the study, there was a direct, significant relationship between perceived social support and the rate of students’ mental health. Moreover, the gender difference in the rate of mental health is proved, showing that the male students enjoyed better mental health status than female; while there were no significant relationships between social class and religiosity of students with the rate of mental health. Also, gender, social class, and religiosity were associated with perceived social support. Finally, applying multivariate regression analysis, it has been appeared that the rate of students’ mental health was under direct influence of such variables as perceived social support and gender. Furthermore, such variable as social class and religiosity had indirect effects on the rate of students’ mental health, through increasing social support. However, perceived social support was the strongest predictor of the students’ mental health.
Results: Enjoying high level of social support is a source of proper mental health. With respect to findings of this study, it is necessary that policy makers of mental health, focus on ways of promotion of social support and religious beliefs, and pay more attention to mental health issues among female and lower social class students to increase their coping skills.

Introduction: Stress along with genetic and biological vulnerability is considered as a main factor in incidence and prevalence of psychosomatic disorders. The main objectives of this study were to describe the rate of stress as well as the prevalence rate of psychosomatic disorders, and to find the association between these two variables.
Materials and Methods: The universe of the study was 2275 martyr’s wives who were residence of Mazandaran Province in 2007. By means of two stage sampling method (cluster and proportional), 318 martyr’s wives have been selected randomly. The study has been conducted via Survey method.  Required data has been collected by means of a questionnaire with interview. Wheaton Stress Scale is used to measure the level of stress among martyr’s wives. Furthermore, for measuring prevalence rate of psychosomatic disorders, respondents asked to clarify that how much suffered from the 20 most prevalent symptoms over the last years (self reported health status).
Results: The findings of the study show that 41.8 percent of martyr’s wives were under medium and high levels of stress, and 54/4 percent suffered medium and high levels of psychosomatic disorders. Head-ache, shoulder and back pain, knee and elbow pain, lack of appetite, Arteries, and wounds in digestive organs were the most prevalence psychosomatic disorders.  The analysis of data has shown the positive and significant association between the stress and psychosomatic disorders, namely; the probability of suffering from psychosomatic disorders will be increased just as the rate of stress increase.
Discussion: The results of the study imply the necessity of increasing the quality of services by Martyr Organization to martyr’s wives, and also some psycho-social interventions in order to enhancing their self-esteem, as well as teaching them how to cope with stress.

Infertility is twofold phenomenon: biological as well as psycho-social. Therefore, following the infertility diagnosis by others, one might anticipate the psycho-social consequences. The present study seeks to examine some of the psycho-social consequences of infertility among a sample of infertile men and women in Yazd and also explain gender differences in this regard. The study is conducted via survey method; and data has been collected through questionnaire. The subjects of the study were 360 men and women who have been referred to Yazd’ Infertility Center and selected by means of simple random sampling method. The results of the study show that no significant gender differences were observed in the negative consequences of infertility among infertile men and women. However, there were significant gender differences in such variables as; coping styles with infertility-related stigma, isolation caused by infertility, self-image due to infertility, and perceiving Important Others’ view concerning him/herself. Therefore, compared to men, women have been made more effort to hide the infertility-related stigma, refrain from attend to social ceremonies and refuse to communicate with people around, had more negative self-image, and perceived that the Important Others’ view are more negative due to their infertility. These findings emphasize on the necessity of adopting psycho-social policy making as well as necessary interventions to reduce psycho-social tensions on infertile couples, especially women.

Television and religious identity
(Case study: students of Mazandaran University)

1) Mohammad Esmaeil Riahi (PhD): Assistant Professor of Social Sciences,
University of Mazandaran, E-mail:  m.riahi@umz.ac.ir 
2) Tohid Alizadeh:  M.A of Sociology, University of Mazandaran,
E-mail: alizade.1982@yahoo.com,
3) Masoumeh Eshtiaghi: M.A of Sociology, University of Mazandaran,
E-mail: eshtiyaghi87@yahoo.com
4) Mehrdad Kazemian: M.A of Social Research, University of Mazandaran,
E-mail: Kazemian_mehrdad@yahoo.com


Introduction:
One of the features of society as well as human nature is seeking for safe place or haven in religion. Fear of death and suffering of life, makes human needy to faith in God. Religion as one of the most important social institutions in formulating meanings of social life has always had a special place. Religion is a social as well as divine phenomenon, and in particular, as it is mentioned in religious books, it has been sent to save humanity from the difficulties and tragedies life. According to the socio-cultural structure of Iranian society, religious identity among other social identities (national, ethnic, gender, etc.) has a prominent place.
With the development of communication and the emergence of mass media such as newspapers, television and cinema, different aspects of our social activities are affected by these phenomena. Indeed, it is conceded that the formation of our personality and social identity have been surrounded by mass media. In this regard television has undoubtedly a prominent position.
According to Giddens, the advent of television strongly influenced everyday life patterns, because many people set their activities around the certain television programs. Entering television to Iranian society is almost a new event, but in this the short time, its deep and lasting effects on the social relationships of Iranian community and influencing Iranian-Islamic identity could be observable clearly. TV helps us to provide our overall framework and attitudes towards social life generally, and to determine part of our social identity (religious) specifically. Due to its importance in providing this arena, we need to evaluate its consequences and impacts on social relations. From this perspective, the TV is not only entertainment provider, but also as an information and communication devices which has lasting effects on the reproduction of culture and collective identity of society. Thus, attention to the study of television effects on religious identity considerably is important. In addition, to identify the rate and type of television use among students as young group of society, and its relation to their identity can help planners and policy makers to design strategies and policies consciously for this group.
Because of the complexity of the issue, to examine the effects of television on religious identity, it seems that one theory cannot explain the issue completely. Therefore, in this research combined theoretical framework is used. Thus, to explain the effects of television, the theory of media effects, and in particular the Use and Gratification Theory, Cultivation Theory and the Theory of Knowledge Gaps were used. Also, theories of Modern Identity and in particular Structuration Theory of Giddens and Social Identity of Tajfel were used to study religious identity.
Acknowledging the role of mass media to shape or to change the identity of individuals, the present study explores the relationship between television and religious identity among the students of Mazandaran University. Therefore, the main objectives of this study are to identify: 1) the students’ religious identity, 2) the rate and type of television consumption as a cultural commodity by students, 3) and the relationship between rate and type of television consumption with the religious identity of students.

Materials and Methods:
The study has been conducted via Survey method. The subjects of study were 12962 formally enrolled students of Mazandaran University, Babolsar. By means of multi-stage cluster sampling method, 373 students have been selected randomly to fill up the self-administered questionnaire. A 14 items scale is used to measure the rate and type of television consumption. Also, a four dimensions scale (the theological dimension, experiential or emotional dimension, the outcome dimension and rituals dimension) with 26 items is applied to measure the respondents' religious identity. Pre-test of final questionnaires is done in two stages between 100 respondents. Finally, all gathered data has been analyzed using SPSS software.

Discussion of Results and Conclusions:
The findings of this study indicated that in general, students enjoyed high level of religious identity. However, there is some variance as one consider level of religious identity by its four dimensions; that is, the highest and lowest reported religious identity were the theological (average of 4.61 out of 5) and ceremonial (average of 3.63) aspects, respectively. Also, research findings on the rate of television consumption indicated that status of television consumption among students is at a moderate to low (average of 2.37 from 5). Furthermore, a considerable number of students (7.5 percent) never watch the television. As explained in the Cultivation Theory, students as low consumption audiences of television, watch T.V as a selective and programmed behavior only for 2 hours or less daily, but use other media (especially internet) along with television. When Students consume television as a cultural commodity, they try to be "active"; indeed, they will interpret the content of the received program "actively". It seems that using other mass media (internet, book, magazine, satellite T.V, etc.), lack of access to television, and or reluctance to local television programs; are resulted to lower levels of television consumption among students. This finding would be more important if one notice that according to sociologist view such as Giddens, today television could have serious effects on daily life patterns. One of the important finding in the present study is that along with increasing consumption of local television among students, levels of religious identity also would be increased. This finding must be regarded by policy makers. With respect to the higher levels of other media consumption (such as the internet and satellite) as global cultural commodities, low levels of T.V consumption among students, can be a serious consideration.
Another important result of this study is the content of the programs which used by students as well as their effects on religious identity. Entertainment and leisure programs (average of 3.29 from 5) were the first favorable program; while the lowest one is related to religious programs (average of 2.23). In fact, there is a different between the content of television programs (as cultural goods) which have been used by students. As mentioned above, there is a direct, positive correlation between the rate of watching local TV programs with levels of religious identity; but the amount of correlation coefficient between purely religious T.V programs with religious identity in all dimension, compared to amount of correlation coefficient with other programs, were significantly higher. However, among all dimensions of religious identity, outcome dimension have the strongest correlation coefficient (.513) with the purely religious programs. Increased watching of purely religious programs has the greatest effect on the outcome dimension of religious identity. Also, faith dimension has the strongest correlation coefficient (.321) with the other T.V programs.
The results of this study indicate that to consider the quality and quantity of religious programs on local T.V, is an important factor in strengthening students' religious identity. On the other hand, this will have a great influence on the outcome dimension of religious identity. The findings suggest that higher levels of watching different T.V programs can be effective on traditional religious identity of students. Increasing religious T.V programs and encouragement young audiences to choose cultural consumption of local television, is an important factor for strengthening religious identity of young people as well as to make firm the foundation of religious identity in society. Therefore, filling leisure time of individuals, especially young students by the television programs, would be very important strategy which must be regarded by authorities. In fact, increasing quality of television programs adapted to the need of society, especially young students, is an important way to protect religious identity. In general, as the results of this study showed, use of local television programs have a positive impact on religious identity of students. Thus, the encouragement of young people to watch local television programs as well as enhancing the quality of religious T.V programs, can be the most important steps towards strengthen outcome dimension of religious identity among students.

Keywords:
Media, Identity, Television, Religious Identity, Students, Mazandaran University

Objectives: The main objectives of this study are to describe and explain gender & national differences in health related knowledge & beliefs, and their impacts on health behaviors of university students in Iran (Mazandaran University) and India (Panjab University), with special emphasis on psychosocial factors.
Methods: Survey method is been used for conducting the present study. By means of multi– stage sampling procedure, 504 students from both the universities have been selected randomly, to fill up  the self- administered questionnaire consists of two scales regarding health related knowledge & beliefs ,and some questions about health-related behaviors such as personal hygiene , physical exercise , dietary habits , preventive medical checkups, alcohol consumption, and smoking.
Results: The main findings of the present study can be summarized as follows: 1) The university students in India compared with their counterparts in Iran were more  aware of risk factors involved in certain diseases (higher rates of health knowledge), while men and women students did not differ in this respect.  2) The university students in both countries were not different in terms of health beliefs, while women compared with men students were more conscious of the importance of certain behaviors for health maintenance (higher rates of health beliefs).  3) Association between health knowledge and health-related behaviors was found to be weak and non significant; while a very strong and significant association between health beliefs and health related behaviors was observed.
Discussion: Improving health beliefs of students rather than their health knowledge, is an essential step in order to increase their positive health-related behaviors.
Keywords: Gender, Gender differences, health knowledge, health beliefs, health behaviors, University students, Iran, India