Explaination and Prediction of Quality of Life and Happiness Based on the Time Span of Students

Living in the era of technology and information, despite the many benefits and widespread communication, has been accompanied by an increase in distance and loneliness of most people and the development of psychosocial problems, such as depression, suicide, divorce, and various types of delinquency. This affects the quality of life and happiness and has thus attracted the attention of scholars. The purpose of this study was to explain and predict quality of life and happiness based on the time horizons of students.
The statistical population of the study consisted of all graduate students of the Islamic Azad University of Hamedan during the academic year of 2011 to 2012. Their number was 4000. Sample size was based on at least 50 people while 10 predictors for each variable was estimated, thus 120 people were selected by stratified random sampling. For measuring the time perspective, the Zimbardo (66) questionnaire (1999) was used, for quality of life, 26 questions prepared by the World Health Organization (2006), and for happiness, the Oxford questionnaire 29, designed by Arjil (1996), was used. Data analysis was performed by Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis using Barney and Kenny method with the SPSS software.
The results showed that the time horizons of students were not high, while their quality of life and their happiness were reported as high. Also, there was a significant relationship between the time perspective, quality of life and happiness among students. In addition, the time perspective and quality of life were able to explain and predict happiness of undergraduate students at the Islamic Azad University of Hamedan. Meanwhile, quality of life had a significant mediator role.
In order to increase the happiness of students, it is suggested to encourage past positive perspectives and transcendental future, while improving quality of life.