Modeling marriage orientation based on psychological capital and premarital relationship attitudes with the mediation of family friendship among single students

Marital orientation refers to assessing individuals' optimistic or pessimistic attitudes toward marriage. Among the influential factors shaping young people's marital orientation are the relationships they have with others before marriage, as well as their psychological capital. In past studies, family friendship has also been identified as one of the influential factors. However, to date, no model has been proposed for marital orientation based on the relationships between these components.

The aim of the current research was to model marital orientation based on psychological capital and premarital relationship attitudes with the mediation of family friendship.

The present research was descriptive and employed correlational structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the study included all single students of Islamic Azad University in Isfahan province. Considering the number of research variables and conventional statistical methods, a sample of 500 individuals (303 females and 197 males) was selected using stratified random sampling method. Participants completed questionnaires on marital orientation (Guanji, 2020), psychological capital (Luthans, 2007), premarital relationship attitudes (Kourdeloo, 2001), and family friendship (Hashemi Garmdarreh, 2019). The data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software.

The findings indicate that among the predictor and mediator variables, optimism, resilience, and self-efficacy, as well as family friendship, have a direct relationship with marital orientation
(p< 0.05). Additionally, psychological capital and premarital relationship attitudes can predict marital orientation through the family friendship variable (p< 0.05).

Based on the results obtained, it can be said that the higher the levels of psychological capital and family friendship among students, the more optimistic their orientation towards marriage will be. Considering the results, the family friendship variable plays an important and influential mediating role in the relationship between psychological capital and premarital relationship attitudes with marital orientation.