Journal of Research in Educational Systems

Abstract Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of psychological empowerment on academic self-concept of students with low academic performance.
Method: The research method was a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test with a control group. The statistical population of this study included all female students with low academic performance in the second high school in Ardabil in the academic year 2024-2025. For this purpose, 30 female students with low academic performance were selected using purposive sampling according to the study entry criteria and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (15 people) and control group (15 people). After pre-testing with the Liu and Wang (2005) Academic Self-Concept Questionnaire the experimental group received 8 sessions (2 sessions per week) of 60 minutes of the Thomas and Velthouse (1990) psychological empowerment training program, and the control group continued with their normal routine. The data were analyzed using the univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) method in SPSS.26 software.
Results: The findings showed that there was a significant difference between the mean academic self-concept (P<0.05, F=4.84, ηp2=0.152) of the experimental and control groups in the post-test. Thus, after implementing psychological empowerment training, the mean scores of students with low academic performance in the experimental group increased significantly compared to the control group.
Conclusions: As a result, by training psychological empowerment in students, the level of academic self-concept can be increased in them. With the help of psychological empowerment strategies, students can re-examine and review their numerous failures, and ultimately, the academic performance of students improves.