the hearing threshold of his better ear is 90 decibel ( db ) or more and he can hear with or without using hearing aid ( 1 ) . hearing impairment is the most frequent sensory deficiency in communities , which affects more than 250 million people in the world ( 2 ) . hearing loss affects nearly 15 - 26% of the world s population , with the highest prevalence in low - income countries ( 34 ) . deaf people are very heterogeneous populations relating to cognitive , social , and emotional development ( 1 ) . hearing impairment coincides with inability to communicate , delay in language acquisition , educational disadvantage , social isolation , withdrawal , rejection , depression and anxiety . this factors lead to decrease of mental as well as general health ( 5 ) . different countries have provided diverse educational and rehabilitation services ( 6 ) , although it seems insufficient ( 7 ) . therefore , it is important to plan educational programs to increase the mental health of deaf students . health means not only lack of illness or disability but also it includes physical and mental situations or social welfare . mental health is also a state of well - being that person identifies their abilities , can cope with ordinary life stress , work fruitful and productive , and play his role in the environment ( 9 ) . as far as , deaf children have limitations in their linguistic skills , they are facing with social and psychological problems . they can not set up his own relationships with other people , as well as their peers in various situations . so , paying attention to the mental health of deaf children is one of the main goals of teaching programs for them ( 10 ) . obviously , providing rehabilitation services for deaf people , such as emotional intelligence training is essential for promotion of their mental health ( 1011 ) . unlike the cognitive intelligence , emotional massive researches have been done about the effect of emotional intelligence training on mental health of children in different age and groups . it is reported that there is a significant and positive relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement as well as reduction of behavior problems ( 12 ) . results of the meta - analyses showed that there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and mental health . many studies have indicated that emotional intelligence training is effective on mental health , depression , anxiety , somatic symptoms and social dysfunction of students ( 1417 ) . literature review showed that emotional intelligence has great effect on memory health , perception of experience , judgment , decision making and mental development ( 18 ) . on the other hand , deafness can affect on the components of emotional intelligence such as , self - awareness , self - management , social awareness and relationship management . low emotional intelligence associates positively with weak self - concept , isolation , despair , depression and anxiety ( 19 ) . it seems that the mental health of deaf students can be affected by emotional intelligence . therefore , it is essential to provide comprehensive educational and rehabilitation programs for deaf students to promote their mental health . consequently , they are able to cope with serious problems in their daily life . the present study was aimed to assess the effect of emotional intelligence training on mental health of deaf students in tehran province and looked the answers for this question : does emotional intelligence training promote the mental health and its components of deaf students ? this was a semi - experimental study with pretest and posttest design covering a sample of 40 deaf boy students representative of tehran province aged 12 to 14 years old ( mean=12.48 and standard deviation=1.81 ) . the study was formally approved by exceptional education organization ethics in iran . after supplying written informed by parents of students , 40 deaf students educating in specific schools ( middle school ; 2 grade ) were selected randomly by cluster sampling method from two provinces and two schools . to measure students intelligence , all participants answered to wechsler intelligence scale for children - revised ( wisc - r ) . the wisc - r is composed of 12 subscales and provides three intelligent quotient ( iq ) scores : verbal , nonverbal and total iq . to assess verbal iq , the scores of subtests : information , similarities , arithmetic , vocabulary , comprehension , and digit span were summed up . for assessing nonverbal iq , the scores of subtests : performance , picture completion , picture arrangement , block design , object assembly , coding , and mazes were calculated . the reliability and validity of wisc - r was measured and reported 0.73 for its reliability and correlation quotients for verbal , nonverbal and total iqs were 0.84 , 0.74 , and 0.85 respectively ( 20 ) . to assess subjects health , general health questionnaire ( ghq-28 ; goldberg & hiller ) was used . the ghq consists of 4 subscales ( somatic symptoms , anxiety , depression , and social dysfunction ) and each subscale has 7 items . the questionnaire was scored based on likert from zero ( for more than ever ) to 3 ( much worse than ever ) . twenty - three point or higher ( cut point ) is an index for lack of mental health . goldberg reported reliability and validity of the questionnaire 0.89 and 0.83 ( 21 ) . in iran , the reliability of ghq-28 has reported 0.91 for mental health and 0.84 , 0.78 , 0.79 , and 0.81 for somatic symptoms , anxiety , social dysfunction , and depression in respect ( 22 ) . also , it was reported 0.88 for its reliability and 0.55 for the subscales validity ( 23 ) . after answering to wisc - r , the boys who got 90 - 110 scores in wisc - r ( mean=98.36 and standard deviation= 2.44 ) selected and answered to ghq-28 . then , all participants were divided to experimental and control groups randomly ( 20 students in each group ) . experimental group participated in 12 intervention sessions ( twice a week ; each lasting for 50 minutes ) and trained by emotional intelligence program , while control group did not . the emotional intelligence training program which was used in the present study was provided by hoveizavi and enayati ( 24 ) . there was difference between experimental and control groups according to mental health and its components ( table 2 ) . the representative indices in table 2 , showed that the mean of mental health and its components have reduced in posttest situation in comparison with pretest . descriptive indices of mental health for experimental and control groups in pretest and posttest situations it is required to test the assumptions of analysis of covariance ( ancova ) for determining the effectiveness of emotional intelligence training on mental health of deaf students . the kolmogorov - smirnov test showed that all variables were normal and leven test was not significant ( p=0.789 ) . in order to compare the mental health of experimental and control groups in posttest the results of ancova for comparing mental health of experimental and control groups as indicated in table 3 , there is a significant difference ( p<0.001 ) between experimental and control groups according to mental health . also , according to  , 96% of variation of mental health can be explained by participating in emotional intelligencetraining sessions . in order to determining the effectiveness of emotional intelligence training on the components of mental health in deaf students , multivariate analysis of covariance ( mancova ) was used . at first , overall wilk s lambda was significant ( p<0.001 ) , which was indicating that overall predictors can differentiate between two groups . the results of mancova were showed in table 4 for comparing the components of mental health in experimental and control group . results of mancova for comparing the components of mental health in two groups the results of mancovashowed that emotional intelligence training had positive and significant ( p<0.001 ) effect on somatic symptoms , anxiety , social dysfunction , and depression of experimental group . also , according to eta quotient ( 2 ) 0.89% , 0.89% , 0.88% , and 0.76% of variation in somatic symptoms , anxiety , social dysfunction , and depression respectively can be explained by participating to emotional intelligence training sessions . accordingly , as far as deaf students are participating to intervention sessions , their somatic symptoms , anxiety , social dysfunction , and depression will decrease and their mental health will increase . findings showed that the emotional intelligence training program had a positive effect on the promotion of mental health and decrease of somatic symptoms , anxiety , social dysfunction and depression in deaf students . also , some studies showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and decrease of behavioral problems ( 12 ) and aggression ( 25 ) . it is known that emotional intelligence is a complex construct which composed of emotional , personal and social abilities . it is included self - assessment of emotions perception of own and others , ability of establish and maintain intimate relationships with others , ability to express and manage emotions , self - control , and effective problem solving . these factors are affecting on the ability of an individual to cope with the environmental pressures and demands ( 14 ) . on the other hand , deaf students do not develop as same as normal peers because of their communicative and psychological problems . as far as emotional intelligence can be learned , deaf students can learn it and promote their mental health . it is identified that emotional intelligence contributes on management and control of individual s emotions , consequently set up interpersonal relationship ( 10 ) . people with high emotional intelligence cope with problems in a reasonable way and they use different resources to identify stressful situations ( 26 ) . as a sequence , they do not engage in insufficient cycle of negative thoughts which result in depression ( 16 ) . it is probable that emotional intelligence is a crucial factor to regulate and control emotions as well as forming interpersonal relationships . another finding indicated that emotional intelligence training affects social dysfunction in a positive way . as far as , the students identify verbal and nonverbal components of contact , they can promote their adequate social performance . an individual with low emotional intelligence , rarely detect incorrect beliefs and can not apply for others aid , accept his weaknesses , establish or continue a positive interaction , and show his feelings , this deficient cycle would lead to negative attitude toward other people , subsequently social dysfunction ( 16 ) . the rather small sample size should be considered when drawing conclusions from the present study . the lack of intervention program specified for deaf students , absence of tools for assessing mental health of them , and no opportunity for follow - up study were the most limitations of present study . it is recommended that paying attention to deafness of students parents , personality chara - cteristics , age , gender and deafness level of the students can provide more detailed results which are beneficial for promotion of mental health in deaf students . also , it is better to plan the programs such as emotional intelligence training for deaf students in order to reduce or prevent from their problems related to mental health in adulthood . emotional intelligence training has positive effect on mental health of deaf students . regarding to psychological problems related to mental health of deaf students , it is valuable to develop and plan programs which are aimed on emotional intelligence training . if the teachers and instructors are aware of mental health problems in deaf students , they can consider their special needs for helping them to cope with daily difficulties . undoubtedly , students ability for coping with problems can promote their mental health . therefore , it is necessary to inform parents and teachers of the important role of emotional intelligence on promoting mental health of children with special needs . ethical issues ( including plagiarism , informed consent , misconduct , data fabrication and/or falsification , double publication and / or submission , redundancy , etc . ) have been completely observed by the authors .
abstractbackgrounddeafness is a common neural - sensory impairment which leads to lower life quality , withdrawal , social activities reduction , and rejection feeling . 
 so , it is important to plan suitable training programs for mental health promotion of deaf children . 
 emotional intelligence training is one of these programs . 
 the present study was aimed to determine the effectiveness of emotional intelligence training on the mental health of deaf students.methodsin this semi - experimental study with pretest and posttest design , general health questionnaire ( ghq ) was completed in 40 randomly selected boy deaf students with mean age of ( 12.48 ) years old before and after the intervention . 
 the aim of the questionnaire was obtaining information of somatic symptoms , anxiety , social dysfunction , and depression as well as general health . 
 the students were assigned in experimental and control group randomly and in equal . 
 experimental group participated in 12 sessions ( each session lasts for 50 minutes ; twice a week ) and were trained by emotional intelligence program , but control group did not . 
 multivariate analysis of covariance ( mancova ) was used for analyzing the data.resultsthere was a significant difference ( p<0.001 ) between experimental and control group according to somatic symptoms , anxiety , social dysfunction , depression and general health as a whole after participation in intervention sessions.conclusionthere was a significant decrease in somatic symptoms , anxiety , social dysfunction , depression and increase in general health of experimental group . 
 our findings showed that emotional intelligence training program led to promote of general health of boy deaf students .