Relationship between Psychological Hardiness and Social Support with Adaptation: A Study on Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis

Psychological hardiness is a personal factor and social support is regarded as an environmental factor that can facilitate adjustment to disease. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between adaptation with psychological hardiness and social support in individuals with Multiple sclerosis (MS). Seventy two females with MS and 25 males with MSwere selected through randomized sampling from two MS centers. Main variables of the study including adaptation، psychological hardiness، and social supportwere assessed respectively by Adaptation Inventory، Personal Attitudes Survey، and Social Support Questionnaire. Spearman correlation coefficients revealed that there are significant relationships between adaptation and psychological hardiness (p<0. 0001)، as well as between adaptation and social support (p<0. 0001). In addition، Multiple linear Regression showed that psychological hardiness (β= -0. 483) and social support (β= -0. 240) can explain 35/1% of adaptation variance in individuals with MS. Psychological hardinessproved to have a more important role in adaptation of individuals with MS. The study data demonstrated that personal factors like psychological hardiness and environmental factors such as social support can predict adjustment in individuals with MS. In order to clarify mechanisms of these factors on adaptation in individuals with MS، morelongitudinal and experimental studiesare required. These results are alsoapplicable in designing therapeutic programs for individuals with MS.