Mediating effect of fear and externality of happiness in the association between psychological maltreatment and psychological well-being

Abstract

This study aims to explore whether psychological maltreatment predicts young adults' psychological well-being through fear of happiness and externality of happiness. The current study included 490 young adults from a public university in an urban city in Turkey. Participants were 36% male, and they ranged in age from 18 to 39 years (M= 21.77, SD = 2.40). Findings from the study revealed that psychological maltreatment had a significant predictive effect on psychological well-being, fear of happiness, and externality of happiness. Further, fear of happiness and externality of happiness mediated the impact of psychological maltreatment on psychological well-being. These findings indicate that fear and externality of happiness are important sources that can help to explain the association between childhood psychological maltreatment and psychological well-being among young adults. Therefore, there is a need to design a more comprehensive prevention and intervention approach for improving people's psychological well-being in the context of psychological maltreatment.

Keywords: Psychological maltreatment; happiness; psychological well-being; well-being; young adults.