The examination of relationships between psychological flexibility and fear of happiness in young adults: the mediating role of life satisfaction

This study aims to between psychological flexibility (high scores on the scale = indicate psychological rigidity), happiness fear, as well as satisfaction of life in young adults, and to test the mediator role of life satisfaction in the relationship between psychological flexibility and happiness fear. The research was conducted with 370 young adults aged 19–26 studying at several universities in Türkiye and Cyprus. Data were collected online using the Personal Information Form, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire–II (AAQ- II), Fear of Happiness Scale (FHS), and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). The analyses were conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS27) program and the PROcedures for Statistical and Causal Estimation (PROCESS) Macro, Model4, developed by A.F. Hayes. Besides, on one hand, psychological flexibility and fear of happiness (r = 0.545, p < 0.001) showed that positive and remarkable relationship in the person correlation analysis. On the other hand, a negative and important relationship was found bertween psychological flexibility and life satisfaction (r=-0.273, p < 0.001). In addition, a low-level, negative, and important relationship was detected between life satisfaction and fear of happiness (r=-0.198, p < 0.001). Apart from that, the psychological flexibility played significant predictive role for happiness fear (β = 0.531, p < 0.001) in the simple linear regression analysis. PROCESS mediation analysis revealed that as scores on the psychological flexibility scale increased (i.e., as psychological rigidity emerged), life satisfaction levels decreased (β = -0.273, p < .001), but the impact of life satisfaction on fear of happiness was not remarkable (β = -0. 053, p = .254), the indirect impact was not found to be significant (Bootstrap Lower Level Confidence Interval [BootLLCI]=-0.013; Bootstrap Upper Level Confidence Interval [BootULCI] = 0.067). Accordingly, life satisfaction does not mediate the relationship between psychological flexibility and fear of happiness. These findings suggest that psychological flexibility is a remarkable risk factor for fear of happiness in young adults and support the need for interventions that promote psychological flexibility.