Background and Objectives: Personal space is a distance in which a person feels comfortable alongside another person. Measuring personal space in educational environments in native and non-native students is important, because it can affect their learning process. The aim of this study was to compare the personal space size in native and non-native students in the faculty of public health of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on 224 students during autumn 2024. The data collection tools were a demographic questionnaire and the stop-distance standard method, in which the students and confederate approached together from the eight main orientations, and the stop distance which was measured by a tape measure, determined the students’ personal space. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent t-test.
Results: The number of 97 students (43.3%) were native and 127 (56.7%) were non-native. In all dimensions of personal space and active and passive assessments, the non-native students had a larger average personal space compared to the native students. There was a significant difference in personal space between the native and non-native students in the passive assessments in the west direction with a same-gender confederate (p=0.043) and in the southwest direction with an opposite-gender confederate (p=0.039)
Conclusion: Given the importance of personal space in educational environments and its impact on student learning, it is essential to design these environments in a way that respects the personal boundaries of all students. The use of personal space data could be useful to achieve the mentioned goal. It is recommended that further research be conducted considering other determinant variables.
Keywords: Personal space, Anthropometric dimensions, Students, Native, Non-native

Funding: This study was financially supported by Zanjan University of Medical Sciences.
Conflict of interest: None declared.
Ethical considerations: The Ethics Committee of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences approved the study (IR.ZUMS.REC.1403.136).
Authors’ contributions:
- Conceptualization: Reza Kalantari, Seyed Reza Azimi Pirsaraei
- Methodology: Reza Kalantari
- Data collection: Reza Kalantari, Nilofar Shabani Arbosara, Amirreza Abidi, Parsa Fooladi
- Formal analysis: Reza Kalantari, Amirreza Abidi
- Supervision: Seyed Reza Azimi Pirsaraei
- Project administration: Reza Kalantari
- Writing – original draft: Reza Kalantari, Nilofar Shabani Arbosara, Parsa Fooladi
- Writing – review & editing: Reza Kalantari, Seyed Reza Azimi Pirsaraei, Nilofar Shabani Arbosara, Amirreza Abidi, Parsa Fooladi