Predictive Role of Social Security and Psychological Health Literacy on Health Promoting Behaviors among Afghan Immigrant Mothers Aged 30–45

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Khatam University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background and Objectives: This study aimed to examine the role of social security and psychological health literacy in predicting health-promoting behaviors among Afghan immigrant mothers. 

Materials and Methods: The study employed a quantitative, applied, and descriptive correlational design. The research population consisted of Afghan immigrant mothers living in districts 18 to 20 of Tehran in 2024. A total of 320 mothers aged 30 to 45 years (35.41± 4.41) were recruited through voluntary and convenience sampling. Data were collected using the Social Safeness and Pleasure Scale, the Mental Health Literacy Scale, and the health Promoting Lifestyle Profile Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics—including Pearson’s correlation coefficient and simultaneous multiple regression—were conducted using SPSS version 25.

Results: Social security demonstrated significant positive correlations with overall health promoting behaviors (r = 0.66) and with the following subdimensions: nutrition (r = 0.59), exercise (r = 0.50), health responsibility (r = 0.51), stress management (r = 0.46), interpersonal support (r = 0.36), and self actualization (r = 0.34) (all p < 0.01). Similarly, psychological health literacy was significantly correlated with overall health promoting behaviors (r = 0.66) and with nutrition (r = 0.47), exercise (r = 0.55), health responsibility (r = 0.53), stress management (r = 0.46), interpersonal support (r = 0.42), and self actualization (r = 0.41) (all p < 0.01).

Conclusion: Simultaneous multiple regression analysis revealed that social security and psychological health literacy accounted for 43% and 45% of the variance in health-promoting behaviors, respectively, and together explained 60% of the variance. These findings indicate that higher levels of social security and psychological health literacy are associated with greater engagement in health-promoting behaviors among Afghan immigrant mothers. Recognizing these influential factors can inform the design of targeted educational and support interventions aimed at improving the quality of life in this population.

Keywords

Acknowledgments: The authors would like to appreciate the participants who cooperated closely with them.


Availability of Data and Materials: The data are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions.


Conflict of interest: The authors declared no conflict of interest.


Consent for publication: Not applicable.


Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate: The protocol for this study was approved by the Shahid Beheshti University research committee with code: IR.SBU.REC.1403.092. This research was undertaken in accordance with the ethical principles articulated in the Declaration of Helsinki. To comply with the ethical principles of voluntary participation, written informed consent was obtained from the participants for conducting and recording the interviews. The participants were also reassured of the confidentiality of their information. 


Funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.


Authors' Contribution: SY and A Kh-K: Developed the research idea and designed the study; SY and A Kh-K.: Collaborated on data analysis and manuscript writing; SY and A Kh K.: Provided the resources necessary to undertake this study; SY and A Kh-K:  Participated in sampling. All authors contributed to the revision, discussion, and approval of the final manuscript.

 

Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Journal of Health Literacy

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Available Online from 29 September 2025

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