Volume 24, Issue 92 (5-2024)
refahj 2024, 24(92): 155-197 |
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Qorbanpoor Lafmejani A, nahvinejad T, rezaei S. (2024). Structural Model of Psychological Capital and Perceived Social Support with Quality of Life: Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment. refahj. 24(92), : 5 doi:10.32598/refahj.24.92.4020.2
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-4221-en.html
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-4221-en.html
Keywords: Psychological capital, Perceived social support, Psychological empowerment, Quality of life
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Extended Abstract
Introduction
All over the world every year, many families abandon their children due to various problems, including family and financial problems. The most common form of keeping these people is living in orphanages (Zinah, Smick, Koga, & Carlson, 2005). In the last 30 years, almost 6000 orphaned and abused children, and adolescents have been entrusted to the welfare organization. According to the latest statistics of the welfare organization, there are 26,000 children and teenagers living in welfare day and night homes, and this number is still increasing. Sixteen thousand of these people live in substitute families and 10 thousand people live in 650 day and night houses (Solimani Fard, 2008). Globally, it is estimated that approximately 153 million children have lost their father or mother, of which 18 million have lost both parents. According to UNICEF, two million and two hundred thousand of these people are kept in day and night shelters (Shafiq, Haider & Ijaz, 2020). Although some other statistics estimate this number at seven million (Johnston, 2015). Family and economic problems, death and separation of parents, physical and psychological problems are among the most important factors that cause children to be sent to day and night homes (Rasouli & Yaghmai, 2009). Therefore, it can be pointed out that nowadays there is a global consensus around the issue that the quality of life during childhood and adolescence will have a decisive role on future chances and opportunities in life (Marmot, Friel, Bell, Howling & Taylor, 2008). Due to the difference between living conditions in boarding houses and living in the main family, it is possible that problems and issues will occur for the people living in the houses and therefore their quality of life will undergo fundamental changes. As research studies have shown, the quality of life and happiness of teenagers living in boarding houses is less compared to teenagers living in houses (Khormaher, Shaholi, Ziyai-Rad & Artmanpour, 2020). Meglika, Karnincic, Panjak and Drasinak (2020) also showed in their research that the quality of life and physical activities of teenagers living in orphanages are lower compared to teenagers living in homes. Considering the relatively large population living in boarding houses who face stressful life, limited independence and autonomy, and reduced desirability, it is necessary to evaluate and monitor their satisfaction in relation to their quality of life because the quality of life of these people is significantly lower compared to their counterparts living in the family (Yandork & Samhlaba, 2014). The aforementioned material showed that there is a relationship between psychological capital and perceived social support with quality of life. According to the above research, it seems that psychological empowerment can mediate the relationship between the variables of psychological capital and social support with quality of life in the form of a structural model. A review of the conducted research indicated that the mediating effects of psychological strengths in the relationship between psychological capital and quality of life has not been investigated. Considering the above-mentioned cases, in the current research, attempts have beenmade to answer the question whether the structural model of psychological capital and perceived social support with quality of life with the mediating role of psychological empowerment in girls living in boarding houses has a favorable fit.
Method
The descriptive research method is correlational. So that the fit of the theoretical model was examined in the form of structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this research consists of girls living in boarding houses in Rasht in 1400 (2021), out of which 120 people were selected by available sampling method. A total of 220 copies of the questionnaire were distributed among all centers and orphanages in Rasht, and in the end only 120 copies were returned to the researcher. In order to comply with ethical considerations, the objectives of the research were explained to the sample members and participation in the research, and they were informed that participaying in the study was voluntary. The members were told that their names and the content of their questionnaires would remain confidential. The criteria for entering the research included female gender, age range below 18 years, living at home, not having a history of serious psychiatric diseases, and the criteria for exiting the research was not completing the questionnaires or incompletely completing them. To check the research model and hypotheses, the method of SEM based on partial least squares approach with SmartPLS3 software was used. The SEM method was based on partial least squares approach with SmartPLS3 software. Unlike the first-generation approach, the second-generation approach focuses on maximizing the variance of the dependent variables that are predicted by the independent variables and is very efficient for small sample sizes (Hayer et al., 2014).
Findings
Table 1 shows the indicators of model quality in girls living in orphanages. The
Table 1. Structural model quality indicators in the group of girls living in orphanages
Nitzel et al.'s (2016) method was used to investigate the mediation effect in the relationship. In this method, the indirect effect is obtained by multiplying the direct effects, and then bootstrap analysis is used to check the significance of the mediator effect. Bootstrapping is a process that randomly draws several subsamples (say, 5000) of subsamples from the original data. PLS software uses each of the subsamples for estimation.
Table 2. Indirect effects of psychological capital and perceived social support on quality of life
The Data of Table 2 show that the indirect effect of psychological capital on quality of life with the mediation role of psychological empowerment is significant with a rate of 0.014 at the 0.05 level. Therefore, with a probability of 95%, the variable of psychological Empowerment plays a mediating role in the relationship between psychological capital and quality of life in girls living in orphanages. The findings of Table 5 indicates that the indirect effect of PSS on quality of life is positively significant with the mediation of psychological Empowerment with a rate of 0.375 at the 0.05 level. Therefore, with a probability of 95%, the variable of psychological empowerment plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived social support and quality of life in girls living in orphanages. By adding the mediating variable of psychological Empowerment to the model, the relationship between perceived social support and quality of life has been intensified. By adding the mediator variable to the model, the relationship between the two variables of perceived social support and psychological capital with quality of life increased from 0.455 (sum of indirect and direct effect) to 0.080 (direct effect). Considering the non-significance of the direct path of perceived social support to quality of life, in this case, the mediating variable of psychological Empowerment has a full mediating role in the model.
Discussion
The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the structural model of psychological capital and perceived social support with quality of lifeamong the girls living in orphanages with the mediating role of psychological empowerment. The findings showed that the proposed research model has a good fit. The results showed that all the exogenous and mediating variables can predict 75% of the changes in the quality of life in girls living in boarding houses, which is very strong.
Ethical Considerations
Authors’ contributions
All authors contributed to the implementation, data collection, statistical analysis and writing of this article.
Funding
This research has not received financial support from any institution or organization.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest between the authors.
Follow the ethics of research
In this article, the authenticity of all the sources has been checked and all the used sources are listed at the end of the article.
Introduction
All over the world every year, many families abandon their children due to various problems, including family and financial problems. The most common form of keeping these people is living in orphanages (Zinah, Smick, Koga, & Carlson, 2005). In the last 30 years, almost 6000 orphaned and abused children, and adolescents have been entrusted to the welfare organization. According to the latest statistics of the welfare organization, there are 26,000 children and teenagers living in welfare day and night homes, and this number is still increasing. Sixteen thousand of these people live in substitute families and 10 thousand people live in 650 day and night houses (Solimani Fard, 2008). Globally, it is estimated that approximately 153 million children have lost their father or mother, of which 18 million have lost both parents. According to UNICEF, two million and two hundred thousand of these people are kept in day and night shelters (Shafiq, Haider & Ijaz, 2020). Although some other statistics estimate this number at seven million (Johnston, 2015). Family and economic problems, death and separation of parents, physical and psychological problems are among the most important factors that cause children to be sent to day and night homes (Rasouli & Yaghmai, 2009). Therefore, it can be pointed out that nowadays there is a global consensus around the issue that the quality of life during childhood and adolescence will have a decisive role on future chances and opportunities in life (Marmot, Friel, Bell, Howling & Taylor, 2008). Due to the difference between living conditions in boarding houses and living in the main family, it is possible that problems and issues will occur for the people living in the houses and therefore their quality of life will undergo fundamental changes. As research studies have shown, the quality of life and happiness of teenagers living in boarding houses is less compared to teenagers living in houses (Khormaher, Shaholi, Ziyai-Rad & Artmanpour, 2020). Meglika, Karnincic, Panjak and Drasinak (2020) also showed in their research that the quality of life and physical activities of teenagers living in orphanages are lower compared to teenagers living in homes. Considering the relatively large population living in boarding houses who face stressful life, limited independence and autonomy, and reduced desirability, it is necessary to evaluate and monitor their satisfaction in relation to their quality of life because the quality of life of these people is significantly lower compared to their counterparts living in the family (Yandork & Samhlaba, 2014). The aforementioned material showed that there is a relationship between psychological capital and perceived social support with quality of life. According to the above research, it seems that psychological empowerment can mediate the relationship between the variables of psychological capital and social support with quality of life in the form of a structural model. A review of the conducted research indicated that the mediating effects of psychological strengths in the relationship between psychological capital and quality of life has not been investigated. Considering the above-mentioned cases, in the current research, attempts have beenmade to answer the question whether the structural model of psychological capital and perceived social support with quality of life with the mediating role of psychological empowerment in girls living in boarding houses has a favorable fit.
Method
The descriptive research method is correlational. So that the fit of the theoretical model was examined in the form of structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this research consists of girls living in boarding houses in Rasht in 1400 (2021), out of which 120 people were selected by available sampling method. A total of 220 copies of the questionnaire were distributed among all centers and orphanages in Rasht, and in the end only 120 copies were returned to the researcher. In order to comply with ethical considerations, the objectives of the research were explained to the sample members and participation in the research, and they were informed that participaying in the study was voluntary. The members were told that their names and the content of their questionnaires would remain confidential. The criteria for entering the research included female gender, age range below 18 years, living at home, not having a history of serious psychiatric diseases, and the criteria for exiting the research was not completing the questionnaires or incompletely completing them. To check the research model and hypotheses, the method of SEM based on partial least squares approach with SmartPLS3 software was used. The SEM method was based on partial least squares approach with SmartPLS3 software. Unlike the first-generation approach, the second-generation approach focuses on maximizing the variance of the dependent variables that are predicted by the independent variables and is very efficient for small sample sizes (Hayer et al., 2014).
Findings
Table 1 shows the indicators of model quality in girls living in orphanages. The
Table 1. Structural model quality indicators in the group of girls living in orphanages
| Research variables | ضریب تعیین | CR | Cronbach's alpha | ||||
| R squared | Adjusted R-squared | ||||||
| Psychological empowerment | 354/0 | 342/0 | 256/0 | 420/0 | 710/0 | 878/0 | 792/0 |
| Quality of life | 730/0 | 723/0 | 421/0 | 289/0 | 613/0 | 819/0 | 769/0 |
| Perceived social support | - | - | - | 343/0 | 638/0 | 831/0 | 703/0 |
| Psychological capital | - | - | - | 323/0 | 574/0 | 840/0 | 754/0 |
Nitzel et al.'s (2016) method was used to investigate the mediation effect in the relationship. In this method, the indirect effect is obtained by multiplying the direct effects, and then bootstrap analysis is used to check the significance of the mediator effect. Bootstrapping is a process that randomly draws several subsamples (say, 5000) of subsamples from the original data. PLS software uses each of the subsamples for estimation.
Table 2. Indirect effects of psychological capital and perceived social support on quality of life
| Relationships | p.value | Confidence interval | |||
| lower limit | upper limit | ||||
| Psychological capital --> Psy empowermant --> Quality of life | 014/0 | 353/0 | 724/0 | 087/0- | 060/0 |
| Perceived social support --> Psy empowermant --> Quality of life | 375/0 | 684/5 | 001/0> | 243/0 | 499/0 |
The Data of Table 2 show that the indirect effect of psychological capital on quality of life with the mediation role of psychological empowerment is significant with a rate of 0.014 at the 0.05 level. Therefore, with a probability of 95%, the variable of psychological Empowerment plays a mediating role in the relationship between psychological capital and quality of life in girls living in orphanages. The findings of Table 5 indicates that the indirect effect of PSS on quality of life is positively significant with the mediation of psychological Empowerment with a rate of 0.375 at the 0.05 level. Therefore, with a probability of 95%, the variable of psychological empowerment plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived social support and quality of life in girls living in orphanages. By adding the mediating variable of psychological Empowerment to the model, the relationship between perceived social support and quality of life has been intensified. By adding the mediator variable to the model, the relationship between the two variables of perceived social support and psychological capital with quality of life increased from 0.455 (sum of indirect and direct effect) to 0.080 (direct effect). Considering the non-significance of the direct path of perceived social support to quality of life, in this case, the mediating variable of psychological Empowerment has a full mediating role in the model.
Discussion
The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the structural model of psychological capital and perceived social support with quality of lifeamong the girls living in orphanages with the mediating role of psychological empowerment. The findings showed that the proposed research model has a good fit. The results showed that all the exogenous and mediating variables can predict 75% of the changes in the quality of life in girls living in boarding houses, which is very strong.
Ethical Considerations
Authors’ contributions
All authors contributed to the implementation, data collection, statistical analysis and writing of this article.
Funding
This research has not received financial support from any institution or organization.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest between the authors.
Follow the ethics of research
In this article, the authenticity of all the sources has been checked and all the used sources are listed at the end of the article.
Type of Study: orginal |
Received: 2023/06/11 | Accepted: 2023/10/22 | Published: 2024/05/3
Received: 2023/06/11 | Accepted: 2023/10/22 | Published: 2024/05/3
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