Structural Modeling of Wellness Based on Psychological Capital and Psychological Stability with the Mediation of Marital Burnout in University Students

The main element of quality of life is wellness, defined as the quality of life-related to health. Therefore, health does not only include estimating the amount and severity of the disease but also includes having good conditions and suitable quality of life. Achieving a satisfying and successful life will not be possible without paying attention to the issue of burnout in married life and trying to fix or reduce it. In this regard, it seems that the components of positive psychology, such as psychological capital, psychological stability, and wellness, as well as the relationship of these variables with married life, identifying this relationship and how to exploit it, have an important effect on the quality of life of couples. Therefore, this research was conducted to structurally model wellness based on psychological capital and psychological stability with the mediation of marital burnout.

The research method was analytical and structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this research included the students at Tehran Azad University, center branch in the academic year 2020–2021, and the sampling method was available. To select the sample size in modeling research, 15 people are needed for each obvious variable, and based on the 16 obvious variables, at least 240 people were needed. However, due to the dropout and the possibility of not completing all the questions of the questionnaires by the participants and predicting the lack of access to students due to the restrictions of the coronavirus, 540 questionnaires were distributed, of which 517 questionnaires were completely completed and could be analyzed. The inclusion criteria included students of Tehran Azad University over 18 years of age, having a marriage history of more than two years, subjects not suffering from a specific physical disease or psychological disorder, and not undergoing psychological treatment or special medication. The exclusion criterion was non–cooperation in completing the questionnaires. To collect data, the Five Factor Wellness Inventory (Myers & Sweeney, 2005), the Mental Toughness Questionnaire (Clough et al., 2002), the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (Luthans et al., 2007), and the Marital Burnout Scale (Pines, 1996) were used. This research used descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation). Also, the Pearson correlation coefficient and the structural equation modeling were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 24 and AMOS software version 24. The significance level of all tests was considered 0.05.

Examining the coefficients of the direct path between different paths showed that psychological capital with marital burnout (p<0.001, β=–0.45), psychological capital with wellness (p=0.001, β=0.14), marital burnout with wellness (p<0.001, β=–0.27), psychological stability with marital burnout (p<0.001, β=–0.58) and psychological stability with wellness (p<0.001, β=0.51), had significant direct relationships. Also, the indirect effect of psychological capital on wellness with the mediating role of marital burnout (p=0.001, β=0.23) and the indirect effect of psychological stability on wellness with the mediating role of marital burnout (p=0.001, β=0.29) was significant. The goodness of fit indices supported the good fit of the model with the collected data (χ2/df=2.834, GFI=0.956, NFI=0.913, CFI=0.932, AGFI=0.902, RMSEA=0.078).

Based on the research results, a person's reactions to his environment and his partner and his evaluation of these relationships can affect the success and understanding of emotions related to marital relationships. As a result, marital burnout is considered a bridge between personality traits such as psychological capital and psychological stability with people's health, and its changes affect the relationship between personality traits and wellness.