Modeling the Mediating Role of Personality Traits in the Relationship Between Problem-Solving Skills and Life Satisfaction

Life satisfaction is one of the issues that most families face throughout their lives, and if they do not achieve it, they experience many disabilities and challenges. Life satisfaction refers to a person's feelings about his/her performance and quality of life. In other words, it assesses one's health and well–being. Many factors contribute to satisfaction in life, among which problem–solving skills can be mentioned. Problem–solving skill is one of the decisive skills in life and helps people solve their problems with certain planning. Personality traits can be mentioned, among other factors affecting life satisfaction. Today, with many and varied problems, the number of families visiting counseling centers to acquire the necessary skills to be more satisfied with life is increasing day by day. One of the primary components that counselors and psychologists should be aware of is the personality characteristics of clients and how to teach problem–solving skills to families. This study aimed to model the mediating role of personality traits in the relationship between problem–solving skills and life satisfaction in families.

This research was conducted using the descriptive correlational method. The study’s statistical population included all couples referring to counseling centers in districts 2 and 5 of Tehran City, Iran, in the second half of 2018 and the first half of 2019 who were 1283 people. After determining the sample size by Lohlin volume estimation method which is based on hidden variables and taking into account the possibility of incomplete questionnaires, a sample of 290 people was selected by the available sampling method. In this study, the inclusion criteria were referrals to counseling in districts 2 and 5 of Tehran in the second half of 2018 and the first half of 2019, being interested in cooperating in research and lacking any mental illness. The exclusion criteria were lack of cooperation in research and getting sick. The following questionnaires were used to collect the required data: NEO Five–Factor Inventory (McKree and Costa, 2004), Problem Solving Inventory (Hepner & Baker, 1997), and Life Satisfaction Questionnaire (Diner et al., 2003). In this research, descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to describe the data. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between variables. Data analysis was done in SPSS and AMOS software. A significance level of 0.05 was considered.

The findings showed that the effect of total life satisfaction on the problem–solving skills variable was significant (p<0.001, β=0.439). Also, the direct effect of life satisfaction on the problem–solving skills variable was significant (p<0.001, β=0.285). On the other hand, the indirect effect of life satisfaction mediated by personality traits on the problem–solving skills variable was estimated using the Bootstrap estimation method (p<0.001, β=0.154). The research model had a good fit (X2/df=1.537, CFI=0.996, GFI=0.994, AGFI=0.990, RMSEA=0.031).

Based on the results of this study, the structural model of the study fits the collected data and explains life satisfaction. The problem–solving skill variable can be used through the mediation of personality traits.