This study was a mixed-methods study. We distributed a web-based 1scale (PSS-10), to measure perceived stress scores, through social networks from March 12 to 23, 2020. Then, we interviewed 42 students, 31 homemakers, 27 healthcare providers, and 21 male participants to identify the sources of stress and coping mechanisms.

We examined the correlates of stress among a large sample of Iranian citizens, the second country hit hard by the pandemic, and still a hot spot.

This anonymous survey had 19 items falling into two sections: sociodemographic data and Cohen’s 10-item perceived stress scale (PSS-10).

A statistically significant difference was observed between the levels of perceived stress in individuals with different health statuses with a higher median of total PSS-10 scores reported for hospitalized individuals. The total PSS-10 scores were higher in those who were practicing self-isolation, had a relative affected with COVID-19 disease, and had experienced the death of a relative due to COVID-19 disease.

This study highlighted the most vulnerable groups overloaded with stress in society and the sources of their stress. Furthermore, we identified the groups that perceived lower levels of stress along with their coping mechanisms. The most frequent source of stress among the most stressful groups including homemakers, students, and health care workers has directly related to their job and their principal role in this period. Abstract thought about the COVID-19 pandemic and its complications were more prevalent among students while homemakers and health care providers showed concrete thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic.

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It is the aim of this study to explore the characteristics of influential peers identified by schoolmates, and the mechanism by which they exert their influence on their peers.

Adolescent crowds are a salient influence on the health-risk behaviors of peers, contributing to adolescent substance use such as drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and taking drugs.

A mixed method study. Three schools granted us access to students and those who had been nominated as influential by their peers. The students were asked to nominate and indicated the characteristics of peers whom they considered influential in a quantitative study. Those peers whom they considered influential were invited to take part in focus group interviews. A total of six focus group interviews were conducted, comprised of two groups from each school, with an average of seven participants in each group.

Students considered caring and friendliness (91.0%), being a buddy (88.5%), and entertaining/humor (86.8%) as the top three characteristics of influential peers. The interviews revealed that the students believed that they are influential because of their cheerfulness and humor, considerateness, ability to communicate, popularity and sociability, sincerity and trustworthiness, and because they possess the characteristics of a leader. They also believed that their power to influence came about through their helpfulness, accommodation, and the closeness of their relationships. Their influence was manifested in both positive and negative ways on the academic pursuits and health-risk behaviors of their peers. In order to engage at-risk students in health promotion programs, it is important to identify their influential peers, and to understand how adolescent friends may help one another to resist behaviors that pose a risk to their health.