Document Type : Research Article
Authors
Department of Psychology, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran
Abstract
Background: Quality of life is a multidimensional and dynamic concept that can be assessed based on the differences between expectations and reality level. The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of social anxiety in the causal relationships of alexithymia and social intelligence with the quality of life in women-headed household in Ahvaz.
Methods: The research design was causal-correlational and had a field type. A total of 261 women-headed household were selected from Ahvaz City by convenience sampling. The research instrument included World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire-Short Form, Ahvaz Alexithymia scale (AAS- 26 questions), Tromso Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS), and Jerabek Social Anxiety Scale. Analysis of the data involved both descriptive and inferential statistics including mean, standard deviation, Pearson’s correlation, and path analysis. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 24.
Results: A direct and positive relationship was observed between social intelligence and quality of life (β=0.152, P=0.003) and between alexithymia and social anxiety (β=0.245, P=0.001). There was a direct and negative relationship between social anxiety and quality of life (β=-0.618, P=0.001). There was no direct and significant relationship between alexithymia and quality of life (β=0.043, P=0.417). The path analysis results indicated that social anxiety had a mediating role in the relationship between alexithymia and quality of life (β=-0.246, P=0.001) as well as the relationship between social intelligence and quality of life (β=-0.275, P=0.001).
Conclusion: Social anxiety plays an important role in the relationship between social intelligence, alexithymia, and quality of life.
Keywords
1. Šoltés V, Nováková B, Szabo ZK. A ComparativeStudy on Satisfaction with Current Standard of Living and its Effects on Overall Life Satisfaction: Case of Romania, V4 and EU-15. Quality Innovation Prosperity. 2018;22(1):58-72. doi: 10.12776/qip.v1i1.1047. ## 2. Hadi N, Shabaninezhad E, Shabgard Shahraki Z, Montazeri A, Tahmasebi S, Zakeri Z, et al. The Reduction in Upper Extremity Volume and Improved Quality of Life in Women with Post-Mastectomy Lymphedema by Complex Decongestive Therapy. Women’s Health Bull. 2016;3(2):1-7. doi: 10.17795/whb-29324. ## 3. Cao Y, Tang X, Yang L, Li N, Wu YQ, Fan WY, et al. [Influence of chronic diseases on health related quality of life in middle-aged and elderly people from rural communities: application of EQ-5D scale on a Health Survey in Fangshan, Beijing]. Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi. 2012;33(1):17-22. [PubMed: 22575103]. Chinese. ## 4. Molzahn AE, Kalfoss M, Makaroff KS, Skevington SM. Comparing the importance of different aspects of quality of life to older adults across diverse cultures. Age Ageing. 2011;40(2):192-9. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afq156. [PubMed: 21186234]. ## 5. Wendel-Vos GC, Schuit AJ, Tijhuis MA, Kromhout D. Leisure time physical activity and health-related quality of life: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations. Qual Life Res. 2004;13(3):667-77. doi: 10.1023/B:QURE.0000021313.51397.33. [PubMed: 15130029]. ## 6. Nazari R, Safdel H. Modeling the Effect of Interpersonal Communication of Staff on Occupational Life Quality and Organizational Commitment in Sport Organizations. New Trends in Sport Management. 2016;3(11):21-32. ## 7. Juhl AA, Damsgaard TE, O’Connor M, Christensen S, Zachariae R. Personality Traits as Predictors of Quality of Life and Body Image after Breast Reconstruction. Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open. 2017;5(5):e1341. doi: 10.1097/GOX.0000000000001341. [PubMed: 28607864]. [PubMed Central: PMC5459647]. ## 8. Pellerone M, Formica I, López MH, Migliorisi S, Granà R. Relationship between parenting, alexithymia and adult attachment styles: a cross-national study in Sicilian and Andalusian young adults. Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology. 2017;5(2):1-24. doi: 10.6092/2282-1619/2017.5.1557. ## 9. Vieira RV, Vieira DC, Gomes WB, Gauer G. Alexithymia and its impact on quality of life in a group of Brazilian women with migraine without aura. J Headache Pain. 2013;14:18. doi: 10.1186/1129-2377-14-18. [PubMed: 23565860]. [PubMed Central:PMC3620425]. ## 10. Cejudo J, Rodrigo-Ruiz D, López-Delgado ML, Losada L. Emotional Intelligence and Its Relationship with Levels of Social Anxiety and Stress in Adolescents. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018;15(6):1073. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15061073. ## 11. Doğan T, Eryılmaz A. The Role of Social Intelligence in Happiness. Croatian Journal of Education. 2014;16(3):863-78. ## 12. Hakiminya B, Poorafkari N, Ghafari D. Factors Affecting Quality of Life with Emphasis on Social Intelligence and Social Health (The Case of Kermanshah City). Journal of Applied Sociology. 2017;28(2):163-78. doi: 10.22108/jas.2018.74645.0. Persian. ## 13. Khan T, Bhat S. Social Intelligence, Life Satisfaction and Depressive Symptoms among Adult Women. International Journal of Indian Psychology. 2017;4(3):35-40. doi: 10.25215/0403.04403. ## 14. Morrison AS, Heimberg RG. Social anxiety and social anxiety disorder. Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2013;9:249-74. doi: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050212-185631. [PubMed: 23537485]. ## 15. Watanabe N, Furukawa TA, Chen J, Kinoshita Y, Nakano Y, Ogawa S, et al. Change in quality of life and their predictors in the long-term follow-up after group cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder: a prospective cohort study. BMC Psychiatry. 2010;14(10):81. doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-10-81. [PubMed: 20942980]. [PubMed Central: PMC2965130]. ## 16. Olatunji BO, Cisler JM, Tolin DF. Quality of life in the anxiety disorders: A meta-analytic review. Clin Psychol Rev. 2007;27(5):572-81. doi: 10.1016/j. cpr.2007.01.015. [PubMed: 17343963]. ## 17. Beidel DC, Alfano CA, Kofler MJ, Rao PA, Scharfstein L, Wong Sarver N. The impact of social skills training for social anxiety disorder: a randomized controlled trial. J Anxiety Disord. 2014;28(8):908-18. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.09.016. [PubMed: 25445081]. [PubMed Central: PMC4254620]. ## 18. World Health Organization. Division of Mental Health and Prevention of Substance Abuse. WHOQOL: measuring quality of life. World Health Organization; 1997 . ## 19. Nejat S, Montazeri A, Holakouie Naieni K, Mohammad K, Majdzadeh SR. The World Health Organization quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire: Translation and validation study of the Iranian version. sjsph. 2006;4(4):1-12. ## 20. Makvandi B, Haydarei AR, Shehni Yailagh M, Najarian B, Askery P. Construction and validation of a scale for the measurement of alexithymia in university student. Journal of American Science. 2011;7(12):325 29. ## 21. Silvera DH, Martinussen M, Dahl TI. The Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale, a self-report measure of social intelligence. Scand J Psychol. 2001;42(4):313-9. doi: 10.1111/1467-9450.00242. [PubMed: 11547906]. ## 22. Rahimi H, Eftekhar HS. A Study of Social Intelligence in Students at Kashan University of Medical Sciences During Year 2015. Journal of Nursing Education. 2016;5(3):41-6. doi: 10.21859/jne-05036. Persian. ## 23. Rezaie A. The Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale: Factorial Structure and Reliability of the Persian Version of Scale in the Students Population. Journal of Modern Psychological Researches. 2011;5(20):65-82. ## 24. Aslami N, Khayer M, Hashemi L. Relationship between perfectionism and social-anxiety in regard to self-esteem role as a mediator among the third-grade high school students in Shiraz. Journal of Instruction and Evaluation. 2013;6(23):105-21. Persian. ## 25. Knapp ML, Daly JA. Interpersonal Communication. Sage benchmarks in communication. London: SAGE Publications; 2010. doi: 10.4135/9781446262238. ## 26. Hooda D, Sharma NR, Yadava A. Social intelligence as a predictor of positive psychological health. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology. 2009;35(1):143-50. ## 27. Panayiotou G, Leonidou C, Constantinou E, Michaelides MP. Self-Awareness in alexithymia and associations with social anxiety. Current Psychology. 2018;1-10. ## 28. Ertekin E, Koyuncu A, Ertekin BA, Özyıldırım İ. Alexithymia in social anxiety disorder: is there a specific relationship or is it a feature of comorbid major depression? Anadolu Psikiyatri Dergisi. 2015;16(2):130-137. doi: 10.5455/apd.153110. ## 29. Abbasi F, Shariati K, Tajikzadeh F. Comparison of the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR): Reducing Anxiety Symptoms. Women Health Bull. 2018;5(4):1-5. doi: 10.5812/whb.60585. ## 30. Hampel S, Weis S, Hiller W, Witthöft M. The relations between social anxiety and social intelligence: a latent variable analysis. J Anxiety Disord. 2011;25(4):545-53. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.01.001. [PubMed: 21315550]. ## 31. Nolidin K, Downey LA, Hansen K, Schweitzer I, Stough C. Associations between social anxiety and emotional intelligence within clinically depressed patients. Psychiatr Q. 2013;84(4):513-21. doi: 10.1007/s11126-013-9263-5. [PubMed: 23632828]. ## 32. Nikolić M, van der Storm L, Colonnesi C, Brummelman E, Kan KJ, Bögels S. Are Socially Anxious Children Poor or Advanced Mindreaders? Child Dev. 2019;90(4):1424-1441. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13248. [PubMed: 31099053]. [PubMed Central: PMC6852401]. ## 33. Doherty M. Theory of mind: How children understand others’ Thoughts and feelings. 1st ed. New York: Psychology Press; 2008. doi: 10.4324/9780203929902. ## 34. Rapaport MH, Clary C, Fayyad R, Endicott J. Quality-of-life impairment in depressive and anxiety disorders. Am J Psychiatry. 2005;162(6):1171-8. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.162.6.1171. [PubMed: 15930066]. ## 35. Wong N, Sarver DE, Beidel DC. Quality of life impairments among adults with social phobia: the impact of subtype. J Anxiety Disord. 2012;26(1):50-7. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.08.012. [PubMed: 21964285]. [PubMed Central: PMC3254860]. ## 36. Li YN, Shapiro B, Kim JC, Zhang M, Porszasz J, Bross R, et al. Association between quality of life and anxiety, depression, physical activity and physical performance in maintenance hemodialysis patients. Chronic Dis Transl Med. 2016;2(2):110-119. doi: 10.1016/j.cdtm.2016.09.004. [PubMed: 29063031]. [PubMed Central: PMC5643749]. ##
)