The Relationship Between Fatigue, Social Anhedonia, and Social Functioning: A Quantitative Analysis

Previous studies have explored factors that impact our wellbeing, but research that presents a comprehensive understanding how various factors such as anhedonia, social functioning, and fatigue can relate to each other has been lacking. This study aims to examine the relationship between these three variables. Data is collected from a final sample of 125 individuals (55 men and 70 women) aged between 25 and 60 years old from Australian University Kuwait and oil industry communities in the Arab region. Participants completed validated web-based Likert-scale questionnaires: Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS), Social Functioning Scale Questionnaire (SFQ), and Revised social anhedonia scale (RSAS). Mann-Whitney U test and spearman correlations are used to conduct bivariate analyses. In addition, the sample is stratified by gender and then mediation analysis is conducted using 5,000 bootstrapped samples to investigate whether anhedonia mediates the effect of fatigue on social functioning among men and women. Women reported significantly higher fatigue than men (p = 0.027). Among women, higher fatigue directly predicted poorer social functioning (β = -0.168, p = 0.008), whereas in men neither total nor direct effects were significant. In both genders, the indirect effect via social anhedonia was statistically insignificant, indicating no mediation. The findings of this study demonstrate that fatigue could particularly impair social functioning in women but not men. Interventions to reduce fatigue could enhance women's social functioning directly. Future longitudinal studies with more demographic variables are needed to explore the causal pathways and develop gender-specific strategies.