The Role of Gender on Positive Psychology Constructs in a Sample of Iranian Adolescents and Young adults

Abstract

This study was purposed to investigate the roles of gender and age on psychological hardiness, emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and happiness in an Iranian sample. Participants were included 200 adolescents and 200 young adults that randomly selected from Eghlid City; Fars province, Iran. A demographic questionnaire, the Ahwaz Hardiness Inventory (AHI), the General Self Efficacy Scale (GSES), the Trait-Meta-Mood-Scale (TMMS), and the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) were used in this study. Resulting data indicated that males had a significantly higher performance in psychological hardiness, emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and happiness than females. Also, the influence of gender roles and age and its interaction in these positive psychology constructs were rejected in this study. Implications of the results were discussed for execution of positive psychology programs in males and females.