The mediating role of loneliness in the relationship between spirituality and health-related quality of life in adolescent girls

Abstract Background: Loneliness, spirituality and quality of life are important categories of human life today. Knowing the relationship and mediating role of the aforementioned variables is of practical importance. The purpose of this research is to investigate the mediating role of loneliness in the relationship between spirituality and quality of life related to health in adolescent girls. Methods: The method of descriptive correlational research is structural equations. All female students of the second secondary level of Qochan city in the academic year of 2023-2024 formed the statistical population of this research. The sample size was determined to be 400 people. Then the sample people were selected by the available method. Data were collected through Weber's (1992) health-related quality of life questionnaires, Parsian and Donning's (2009) Spirituality Scale (SQ), and Di Tamaso's (2004) loneliness questionnaire. SPSS and Lisrel statistical software were also used for data analysis. Results: The results of data analysis showed that the loneliness variable with a standardized coefficient of 0.58 has a significant relationship with health-related quality of life (t>1.96). Based on this, it can be accepted that loneliness plays a mediating role in the effect of spirituality on the quality of life related to health. In addition, considering that the direct path of loneliness on health-related quality of life had a significant standardized coefficient, it can be concluded that the loneliness variable acts as a partial mediating variable in the relationship between spirituality and health-related quality of life. Also, the findings showed that spirituality has a negative and direct relationship with health-related quality of life, and the relationship between loneliness and health-related quality of life was also positive and direct. Conclusions: Therefore, it can be concluded that by improving spirituality and improving the feeling of loneliness, the quality of life related to the health of adolescents can be greatly increased.