The effect of Hardiness on Personal and Social Adjustment of Women-headed Household Download PDF

Introduction: Women household heads are extremely vulnerable. Objective: The study was aimed to determine the effect of hardiness skills training on personal and social adjustment of women household heads in Mashhad, Iran. It was assumed that hardiness skill training was effective on the personal and social adjustment of women household heads. Methods: This study was carried out using a pretest-posttest control group design. In this study, a sample of 44 women household heads was used, who were supported by the Welfare Organization in Mashhad. The subjects were then randomly divided into two groups composed of 22 individuals. Both the control and experimental groups were asked to complete Bell's Social Adjustment Inventory. Twenty-two subjects in the experimental group underwent a group work training intervention in eight 90-minute sessions (twice a week) in accordance with Kobasa’s hardiness training protocol. Bell's Adjustment Inventory (adult form) was used as the instrument in the study. Tables and charts and descriptive statistics including frequency, mean, standard deviation and range of variation were used to describe the data. Moreover, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to determine whether the data was normally distributed. Due to the normal distribution of the data, t-test, paired t-test and ANCOVA were used. Results: The hardiness skills training led to the improvement of personal and social adjustment of women household heads. Moreover, the hardiness training intervention effectively improved at-home, health-related, emotional and occupational adjustments among them. Discussion: The hardiness training as an effective factor in stress management can be effective in improving personal and social adjustment of women household heads.