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Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among internalized shame, self-silencing, emotional clarity, and loneliness in middle-aged women and to verify the mediating effects of self-silencing and emotional clarity on the relationship between internalized shame and loneliness. Methods To this end, a survey was conducted on 403 middle-aged women between the ages of 40 and 60, and 399 copies were used for analysis. Technical statistics and correlation analysis were conducted on the collected data using SPSS and AMOS 22.0, and structural equation model analysis was conducted. In addition, the mediated model was verified through bootstrapping. Results The results of this study are as follows. Firstly, there were significant positive correlations among internalized shame, self-silencing, and loneliness. But, emotional clarity had negative correlations with the aforementined variables. Second, there was a partial mediating effect of self-silencing and emotional clarity in the relationship between internalized shame and loneliness. Third, there was a sequential mediating effect of self-silencing and emotional clarity in the relationship between internalized shame and loneliness. Conclusions This study is significant in that it not only improved the understanding of loneliness in middle-aged women by revealing the intermediate mechanisms of self-silencing and emotional clarity in the relationship between internalized shame and loneliness, but also provided an effective theoretical basis for counseling intervention.
Chang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.