Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

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Rezaei Dehnavi S, Heidarian F, Ashtari F, Shaygannejad V, Rezaei Kookhdan F. Relationship between Hardiness and Psychological Well-Being in People with Multiple Sclerosis and normal group. MEJDS 2017; 7 :55-55
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-746-en.html

Abstract
Background and objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated, neurodegenerative disease, which affects an estimated 2.5 million adults worldwide. MS poses multiple challenges for both physical and psychological well-being. People with MS experience unpleasant and unpredictable symptoms, difficult treatment regimes, drug side effects, and increasing levels of physical disability. They also face psychosocial consequences including disruptions to life goals, relationship with others, autonomy, personal growth, environment mastery and self-acceptance. Illness factors such as the extent of neurological disability, symptom severity, remission status, and length of illness can influence levels of psychological adjustment in MS. However, these factors are inconsistently associated with well-being, and are often only modest predictors. Research demonstrated that psychological factors are often better predictors of individual differences in well-being than illness factors. Psychological factors, unlike illness factors, are potentially modifiable through psychological interventions. One psychological factor related to psychological well-being is hardiness. Hardiness is a combination of attitudes that provides the necessary courage, motivation and capability to turn developmental and environmental stressors into opportunities for growth.  Many positive outcomes have been found to relate to measures of hardiness, such as improved psychological and physical health in the face of work and life stress. Kobasa (1982) proposed commitment, control, and challenge as three components of hardiness, which buffer the disease process. Commitment involves one's feelings towards work, family, social encounters, and self. Control refers to a sense of power. Challenge is the ability to view all situations as potentially positive with successful outcomes. Hardy people have a strong commitment to self, work, family, and other values and are often role models for their children and their community, are able to take an active role in and possess a sense of responsibility for their lives, believe that they have the power to influence the course of events in their life, even unpleasant events, and he/she accepts personal responsibility for both the failures and successes in his/her life, see change in their lives as a challenge, not a threat. They enjoy facing challenges in their work and lives. In view of the fact that MS is one of the stressors that severely affect the lives of individuals, the purpose of this study was to investigate relationship between hardiness and psychological well-being in people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and normal group.
Methods: This case- control study was done on 55 people with MS, who referred to Kashani hospital in Isfahan and 83 healthy people that were selected through convenience sampling. The research instruments were Ahvaz Hardiness Inventory and short form of Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale. Pearson correlation coefficient, independent sample t test, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data through spss-21.
Results: The results indicated people with MS showed a lower level of psychological well-being (p<0.001), Nonetheless, the difference was not statistically significant. The relation between hardiness and psychological well-being was stronger in MS group (p<0.001). There was not any statistically significant difference in hardiness with regard to gender, marital status. A statistically significant relationship was found between hardiness and education. That is, MS patients with higher education level reported higher hardiness (p=0.035).
Conclusions: This study indicates that there is strong relation between hardiness and psychological well-being. Interventional programs for educating hardiness for promoting psychological well-being in MS patients strongly recommended.