Fear of Negative Evaluation, Loneliness and Life Orientation of Never Married Men and Women

The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship among fear of negative evaluation, loneliness and life orientation among never married men and women. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant relationship among these variables and there would be gender differences among the participants. Correlational research design was used. The sample size of the study was 200 including 100 males and 100 females selected using purposive sampling. Correlation, regression, independent sample t test and mediation analysis were used. Findings showed that fear of negative evaluation is significantly and positively related with loneliness and negatively related with optimistic life orientation. In addition, loneliness significantly predicted optimistic and pessimistic life orientation. There were also significant gender differences among participants on loneliness and optimistic life orientation. In addition, it was found that loneliness significantly mediated the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and life orientation. Keywords: Fear of negative evaluation, loneliness, life orientation, optimism, pessimism. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/71-05 Publication date: February 29 th 2020