The Effect of Social Support Components with the Mediating Role of Assertiveness on the Quality of Life of Working Women in Tehran

The quality of life in terms of people's perception of their position in life and in the cultural context and value system in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations and concerns and including the individual's physical health, psychological health, level of independence and self-adherence. Social relationships, personal beliefs and their relationships with important aspects of the environment and... quality of life is related to the mental evaluation that takes place in the environmental, social and cultural context (2). On the other hand, considering the importance of women's role in the family, and their impact on raising children and the subsequent development of society, the quality of life of working women is of great importance.Therefore,the identification of factors related to the quality of life in different strata of society has always been of interest to researchers, and in this field, various researches have been conducted and various variables have been identified.In this regard, one of the important factors in the quality of life is social support. A person who has social support is aware that there are others who will support him in difficult situations. Certainly, a person who has high social support has less tension in his life and different aspects of his life have a higher quality. In general, social support is one of the components that is of great importance for mental and physical health (4).Daily courage is another important factor related to the quality of life. Bold behavior is an interpersonal behavior that includes honest and relatively honest expression of thoughts and feelings, in a way that is socially appropriate and takes into account the feelings and comfort of others. In general, boldness can be the ability to honestly express opinions, feelings and Knowledgeable attitudes without feeling anxious. Courage also includes defending one's own rights, so that the rights of others are not violated (11). In this regard, in a study by Hodgis (2018) in the study of nursing students, they showed that a higher level of assertiveness is related to a lower level of depression. In such a situation, a person's life is associated with fewer conflicts and chaos and, of course, with a higher level of relaxation and quality (4). Therefore, the researcher is trying to answer the question whether it is possible to predict the quality of life based on the components of social support with the mediating role of assertiveness in working women in Tehran?

In order to conduct the present applied research, which is descriptive and correlational, 500 people were selected as a sample from among the people who worked in Tehran between 1399-1400, and after explaining the purpose of the research, the questionnaires were selected. Gambrill and Reiji's assertiveness and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) complemented Zimmet et al. Finally, the data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and path analysis and AMOS software.

According to the results of Table 2 and Figure 1, the coefficient observed at the level of P≥0.01 shows a positive and significant correlation between the components of friends, family and others in women with high quality of life. Examining the fit indices obtained from the structural model test showed that the model has a good fit with the collected data (df = 126, N = 448, df = 414.103, CFI = 0.99, GFI = 0.98, GFI = 0.89). = AGFI and RMSEA = 0.071). Table 1 shows the total and direct path coefficients between research variables in the structural model.According to Table 2, the total effect (sum of direct and indirect effects) of friends, family and others on the quality of life is positive and significant at the 0.01 level (P<0.01, β=0.222). And the total effect of friends, family and others on the quality of life is significant at the level of 0.05. Also, the indirect effect of friends on quality of life is positive and significant at the 0.01 level (P<0.001, β=0.190). The indirect effect of psychological family on quality of life is positive and significant at the 0.01 level (P<0.001, β=0.15). And the indirect effect of others on the quality of life is positive and significant at the 0.01 level (P<0.001, β=0.14).

The results of this research showed that the components of social support (friends, family, and others) have a direct and indirect effect on the quality of life of working women in Tehran, and the quality of life can be predicted based on these components.
In explaining this finding of the present research on the effect of the quality of life of working women, it can be noted that the difficulties of working at home and outside the home at the same time put additional pressure on working women. Housewives have more opportunities to take care of housework and rest than working women, while working women, in addition to doing household activities, must also be responsible for the tasks and demands of their workplace, so there is less opportunity for them to rest. In such a situation, the work pressure is doubled and of course it reduces the time and energy needed to deal with personal and marital affairs. In general, it seems that stressful and emotional factors in the work environment, especially therapeutic jobs, increase the feeling of irritability and tension in women, and this unwanted group may carry this amount of pressure home with them, which causes women to show signs of distress and show involvement, which naturally reduces the quality of life affected by these troubles (17).On the other hand, family support and other people are positively related to mental and physical health that is evaluated by the individual himself. The family is considered a refuge and a powerful source of support for the individual against changes and plays an important role in how its members deal with stress. and members can have a positive influence on each other in stressful situations. It is possible that working women refrain from expressing their stress and problems to their friends because their friends avoid communicating clearly about stressful factors. Also, working women may ask for help from people who are not able to help them. Also, due to cultural and personal reasons (negative sense of self-identity), most female heads of the household do not want to express their problems to their friends, so they do not receive much help from them (12). In general, social support as a positive factor can increase a person's perception of the quality of life, and as a result, this research has shown that women who have received social support received higher scores in quality of life.