Background & objectives: The defense mechanisms are mental processes in the structure of personality which has impact on psychological coping mechanisms. Assessing the relationship between defense mechanisms with perceived social support and quality of life that play key role in women’s mental-social health is an inevitable necessity. So, the aim of this study was to predict defense mechanisms based on the perceived quality of life and social and emotional support in married women.

Methods: This descriptive study comprised a sample of 200 married women aged 20 to 50 years old referred to Somayeh teaching hospital of the city of Sanandaj which was chosen by convenience sampling method. Data gathering tool was quality of life, perceived social-emotional support and defense styles questionnaires which were completed by the participants. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis in SPSS (V. 16).

Results: Based on the results of regression analysis, mental health (0.34) and social function (0.25) had strong β-coefficient to explain the coping mechanisms. As well, among the components of perceived social and emotional support, only the item of family (0.16) predicted the dependent variable of coping mechanism.

Conclusion: According to the findings, in order to promote mental health and social function, it is necessary to have new attention to educational and training measures, as preventive and fundamental effort to improve the quality of life and strengthening mature defense mechanisms in married women.