Developing causal model of meaningful life and loneliness based on psychological distress with the mediating role of family emotional climate in people with experience of coping with coronavirus pandemic

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for identifying the consequences of psychological distress during the spread of coronavirus pandemic by mediating role of family emotional climate, which was a practical research in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlative in nature. The statistical population of the study included all Iranians in the country during the spread of coronavirus pandemic. The sample was 590 people who were selected from men and women from different provinces. Sampling was performed based on multistage cluster method which twelve provinces were selected as the target and then the questionnaires were completed by online survey. Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (2002), Steger meaning of life (2010) and researcher-constructed feeling loneliness and Emotional Family Climate Scale were used to collect the data. Structural equation model was used for statistical analysis. Findings showed that psychological distress had a positive causal relationship with the feeling of loneliness and a negative causal relationship with the meaning of life and also, the emotional climate of the family had a mediating role in the relationship between psychological distress and loneliness and meaning of life. As a result, psychologists, sociologists, and other social media professionals should consider the high capacity of the family's emotional climate as a key factor in Reducing of the effects of psychological distress resulting from the spread of crises such as the coronavirus pandemic on individual and collective living condition.