Relationship of Self-Differentiation and Social Intelligence with Happiness by Mediating Role of Difficulty in Cognitive Emotion Regulation Among Female-Headed Households

Female-headed households are one of the vulnerable classes of society that are exposed to serious social problems. Happiness constitutes part of human emotions with different functional consequences in the personal, social, mental, cognitive, and emotional characteristics of female-headed households.

This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of difficulty in cognitive emotion regulation in the relationships of self-differentiation and social intelligence with happiness among female-headed households in Ahvaz city in 2018.

This cross-sectional study included 261 female-headed households, which were selected by a purposive sampling method. The research instruments included the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI), the Tromso Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS), the Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI), and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS).

The results showed that the relationship between difficulties in cognitive emotion regulation and happiness was significant, direct, and negative (β = -0.50, P = 0.000). Also, the relationship between social intelligence and happiness was significant, direct, and positive (β = 0.21, P = 0.000). There was no direct and significant relationship between self-differentiation and happiness (β = 0.04, P = 0.545). Path analysis results showed that difficulties in cognitive emotion regulation had a mediating role in the relationship of social intelligence (β = -0.16, P = 0.000) and self-differentiation (β = -0.03, P = 0.019) with happiness.

The research findings suggest the important mediating role of difficulty in cognitive emotion regulation in the relationships between social intelligence, happiness, and self-differentiation.