An examination of cognitive flexibility and psychological resilience levels as predictors of loneliness among seafarers

The aim of this study is to examine whether the levels of loneliness, cognitive flexibility, and psychological resilience among seafarers differ according to various demographic and occupational characteristics, and to assess the predictive power of these characteristics on the psychological variables in question. To collect data, the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Demir, 1989), the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (Çelikkaleli, 2013), and the Brief Resilience Scale (Doğan, 2015) were used. The research sample consisted of 164 seafarers with diverse profiles in terms of age, gender, marital status, educational background, service class, duration of employment onboard, maritime experience, voluntariness in choosing the profession, shift system, experience and frequency of unexpected events, and daily working hours. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression analysis. The findings revealed that certain demographic variables created significant differences in levels of loneliness, cognitive flexibility, and psychological resilience. Moreover, some variables were found to be significant predictors, particularly for cognitive flexibility