The role of satisfying basic psychological needs, difficulty in regulating emotion and Feeling lonely in predicting fear of intimacy in female sex workers

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of satisfying basic psychological needs, difficulty in regulating emotion, and Feeling lonely in predicting fear of intimacy in female sex workers. This research was descriptive and correlational. The statistical population of this study is all women referring to the Drop-In Center (DIC) in Tehran in the second six months of 1399, from which 50 people entered the study by convenience sampling. Research tools include fear of intimacy inventory (Dekatner and Telen, 1991),  The Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale (La Guardia et al, 2000),  difficulties in emotion regulation scale (Grits and Roemer, 2004), and the short form of the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults ( Ditommaso et al, 2004). Pearson correlation and simultaneous linear regression were used to analyze the data. Findings showed that feeling lonely and having difficulty in regulating emotion had a positive and significant relationship with fear of intimacy and satisfaction of basic psychological needs had a negative and significant relationship with fear of intimacy (P <0.01). Also, regression results showed that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, difficulty in regulating emotion, and loneliness were able to predict 0.76 fear of intimacy in female sex workers (P <0.05). Given that the fear of intimacy in female sex workers is affected by dissatisfaction with basic psychological needs, difficulty in regulating emotion, and Feeling lonely, holding workshops based on these concepts in this group of women seems necessary.