خلاصة:
با توجه به اهمیت بهزیستی روانشناختی بر سلامت روانی و جسمانی افراد و اثرات مخرب احساس تنهایی بر بهزیستی روانشناختی، این مطالعه به بررسی نقش میانجیگری ذهن‌آگاهی در رابطۀ بین احساس تنهایی و بهزیستی روانشناختی پرداخته است. همچنین، در این مطالعه نقش جنسیت در تعامل بین ذهن‌آگاهی و بهزیستی روانشناختی بررسی شد. پژوهش حاضر از نوع همبستگی است که در بستر اینترنت انجام شد و تحلیل‌ها از نوع تحلیل رگرسیون تعدیلگری بود. نمونه‌ای شامل 412 بزرگسال علاوه بر ارائه اطلاعات جمعیت‌شناختی شامل سن و جنسیت، سه پرسشنامه شامل مقیاس احساس تنهایی، نسخه کوتاه بهزیستی روانشناختی و مقیاس ذهن‌آگاهی را تکمیل کردند. نتایج نشان دادند 48% از واریانس بهزیستی روانشناختی در مدل ارئه‌شده تبیین می‌شود. تمامی اثرات مستقیم شامل اثر احساس تنهایی بر بهزیستی روانشناختی، اثر احساس تنهایی بر ذهن‌آگاهی و اثر مستقیم ذهن‌آگاهی بر بهزیستی روانشناختی معنادار بود. همچنین، اثر غیرمستقیم احساس تنهایی بر بهزیستی روانشناختی ازطریق ذهن‌آگاهی معنادار بود. به عبارتی، ذهن‌آگاهی نقش میانجیگری در تأثیر بین احساس تنهایی و بهزیستی روانشناختی دارد. احساس تنهایی با کاهش ذهن‌آگاهی به کاهش بهزیستی روانشناختی افراد منجر می‌شود. نتایج نقش تعدیلگری جنسیت در اثر ذهن‌آگاهی بر بهزیستی روانشناختی را تأیید کردند؛ به طوری که تأثیر ذهن‌آگاهی بر بهزیستی روانشناختی در میان زنان شدت بیشتری داشت. یافته‌های این مطالعه برای ایجاد راهکاری در جهت کاهش اثرات مخرب احساس تنهایی بر بهزیستی روانشناختی قابل بهره‌وری است.
Given the effect of psychological well-being on mental and physical health and the destructive effect of loneliness on psychological well-being, this study investigated the mediating role of mindfulness in the relationship between loneliness and psychological well-being. Also, this study investigated whether gender is a moderator in the association between mindfulness and psychological well-being. In addition to demographic information_ age and gender, an eligible sample of 412 adults completed three questionnaires, including the Loneliness Scale, Psychological Well-Being (PWB-18), and the Mindfulness Scale (MAAS). Sampling was conducted online on the Internet. This survey has been analyzed with moderated regression analysis. The model explained about 48% variance in psychological well-being. All direct effects _the effect of loneliness on psychological well-being, loneliness on mindfulness, and mindfulness on psychological well-being_ were statistically significant. Also, the indirect effect of loneliness on psychological well-being through activation of mindfulness was significant. In other words, mindfulness can mediate the effect of loneliness on psychological well-being. On the other hand, loneliness might decrease psychological well-being by decreasing mindfulness. The results confirmed the moderating role of gender in the effect of mindfulness on psychological well-being so that the effect of mindfulness on psychological well-being intensifies among women. The findings of this study can be used to create a solution to reduce the destructive effects of loneliness on psychological well-being.Introduction*One of the basic concepts of positivist psychology is well-being. Being in a good level of well-being. The optimum level of well-being is when a person has positive conditions and is in optimal functioning (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). Individuals with an optimum level of well-being have been evidenced to be less prone to depression and anxiety and have greater resilience, self-efficacy, adaptability, and mental health (Samsari & Soulis, 2019). So far, different models have been proposed to describe well-being. One of them is Ryff's psychological well-being model (1995). In the Ryff model, psychological well-being is defined by the six components, including self-acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, environmental mastery, autonomy, and positive relations with others. This model not only focuses on the mental part but also considers positive performance (Braaten et al., 2019). Therefore, in addition to measuring well-being, it can also measure mental health (Ryff & Singer, 2008). Various studies have examined Ryff's psychological well-being model and have shown that psychological well-being is associated with greater life satisfaction, fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, vitality, life expectancy, and better mental health (Haghayeghi & Moghadamzadeh, 2021; Trudel -Fitzgerald et al., 2020).Loneliness is one of the potential factors threat to psychological well-being and is a common occurrence in people's lives. Loneliness is defined as a painful feeling, illustrating that a person's social needs are not quantitatively and qualitatively met (Finlay & Kobayashi, 2018). Identifying the function of loneliness on psychological well-being can effectively reduce the destructive effects of loneliness on mental health. Mindfulness involves the awareness of the present moment sustained by a mindset of openness to novelty and the ability to draw novel distinctions reflected in novelty-seeking, novelty-producing, and high overall engagement. Mindfulness promotes psychological well-being, thriving, and success with relevant relations to positive youth development (Abdul Kadir et al., 2021). Furthermore, mindfulness as a personality trait results in people experiencing loneliness differently (Lim et al., 2018; Weinstein et al., 2009). Accordingly, increasing mindfulness is expected to be effective in the direction or intensity of the association between loneliness and psychological well-being. It is therefore not unreasonable to expect that mindfulness plays a mediating role in the relationship between loneliness and psychological well-being.Studies have shown that biological and neurological differences between males and females can be a moderator in the relationship between mindfulness and function. According to the results of neuroscience research, females use both brain hemispheres to do a cognitive task, and there are neurological connections between the two hemispheres in females. While males use one hemisphere and usually the left one for focusing on a cognitive task, there is no neurological connection between the two brain hemispheres in males (Van Honk et al., 2011; Fine, 2021). This biological difference between men and women causes women to use mindfulness skills more effectively than men (Shao & Skarlicki, 2009). In other words, mindfulness helps women more effectively than men to improve performance. To our knowledge, no research has examined the moderating role of gender in the association between mindfulness and psychological well-being. Regarding the neuroscience differences between males and females, gender is expected to be a moderator in the predictive association between mindfulness and psychological well-being, intensifying among females. MethodGoogle Forms platform was utilized to conduct the online survey. Participants were drawn from community-dwelling adults with access to the internet. The link to the survey was distributed through social networking sites, including WhatsApp™, Telegram™, and Instagram™. A sample of 464 completed three questionnaires, including the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (a=0.89), The short version of Ryff Scales of Psychological Well-Being(a=0.89), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (a=0.86). After putting aside the questionnaires with missing and screening the data, the sample included 264 females (64%) and 148 males (36%), and the average age of the sample was 37.95. Descriptive statistics and correlations between the variables were calculated using SPSS26. For moderated mediation analyses, the PROCESS macro developed by Hayes (2017) was used (Hayes, 2017).ResultsTable 1 illustrate descriptive indexesand correlation coefficients of research variables. Table 1. Descriptive indexes and correlation coefficients of research variablesVariablesLonelinessPsychological well-beingMindfulnessLoneliness1 Psychological well-being-0.43**1 Mindfulness-0.45**0.66**1Mean2.494.234.46Standard deviation0.910.810.59**: p The results demonstrated mindfulness as a mediator in the predictive relationship between loneliness and psychological well-being (see Table 2). Table 2. The mediating role of mindfulness in the effect of loneliness on psychological well-beingPathCoe (b)βSEpLLCIULCITotal effect-0.28-0.430.030.000-0.36-0.21Direct effect-0.11-0.170.03=0.001-018-0.04LonelinessaMindfulness-0.41-0.460.040.000-.51-0.31Mindfulnessawell-being0.440.590.020.0000.360.51Indirect effect-0.18 0.02 -0.23-0.13Partially standardized indirect effect -0.300.03 -0.38-0.22Completely standardized indirect effect -0.270.03 -0.34-0.20Note: Coefficient (b): unstandardized regression weights; β: standardized regression weights; SE: standard error; LLCI: lower bound of 99% confidence interval; ULCI: upper bound of 99% confidence interval. The results from the moderated mediation analysis illustrated that gender contributes to the model via moderating effect of mindfulness on psychological well-being. The effect of mindfulness on psychological well-being was more intensified among females than males (see Table 3). Table 3. The moderating role of gender in the effect of mindfulness on psychological well-beingOutcome VariablePredictorsbsetpPsychologicalWell-beingMindfulness0.230.082.73=0.006Gender0.020.031.186=0.236Interaction (Gender X Mindfulness)0.170.062.72=0.007ConclusionIn this study, the mediating role of mindfulness and the moderating role of gender in the association between loneliness and psychological well-being were investigated. Results demonstrated that loneliness leads to less psychological well-being by decreasing mindfulness. The findings are consistent with previous studies evidencing the negative relation between mindfulness and loneliness and its positive relation with psychological well-being (e.g.(Klainin-Yobas et al., 2016; Lindsay et al., 2019; MacDonald & Baxter, 2017). It can be asserted from the finding that improving mindfulness can mitigate the destructive effects of loneliness on psychological well-being, being in line with studies that indicated mindfulness training reduces loneliness and improve the quality of life (Samhkaniyan et al., 2015). Participants with higher levels of mindfulness were more likely to report higher psychological well-being and lesser loneliness. Mindfulness is confirmed to be a protective factor against undesirable effects of challenging life events. Weinstein et al., (2009) asserted two main mechanisms by which mindfulness positively affects psychological well-being. Firstly, mindfulness has an influence on an individual's cognitive appraisal by enhancing objective evaluation of life events, promoting desensitization, decreasing emotional reactions to threatening events, and turning down negative appraisal. Secondly, mindfulness authorizes individuals to use more adaptive coping strategies such as approach coping and to use less avoidant coping. Finally, it helps people obtain optimal levels of psychological well-being (Weinstein et al., 2009). Results also demonstrated the moderating role of gender in the relationship between mindfulness and psychological well-being. This finding is consistent with neuroscience studies evidencing the biological and neurological differences between males and females. Moreover this biological difference between men and women causes women to use mindfulness skills more effectively than men (Shao & Skarlicki, 2009).Conclusively, one way to reduce the destructive effects of loneliness on psychological well-being is to increase the individuals' mindfulness through mindfulness training such as meditation. And since the impact of mindfulness on improving psychological well-being is more effective among females. Therefore, the strategies of decreasing the disruptive effects of loneliness on psychological well-being through improving mindfulness skills can be focused on women's communities. Ethical Consideration Compliance with Ethical Guidelines: Participation was voluntary—the participants were informed that they could withdraw from the study at any time. All ethical issues like informed consent and confidentiality of participants’ identifications were compiled based on ethical committee of University of Tehran.Authors’ Contributions: First author (M. H) contributed to the conception and design of the study, as well as the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the article, and writing the entire manuscript. Second author (A. M) contributed to developing the study design and to final approval of the version to be submitted. Both authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest for this study.Funding: This study was conducted with no financial support.Acknowledgment: The authors thank all participants in the study. *. Corresponding author
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