Abstract
Background & Objectives: The concept of sexual satisfaction refers to a situation where a couple feels happy and satisfied with each other most of the time. Sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment are important aspects of marital life that strongly affect the quality and stability of the couple's relationships. Studies have shown that several factors, including psychological, social, economic, personal and demographic characteristics affect sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment. Of those, sexual knowledge and attitude are among the most important and influential factors. Alexithymia is a construct that has recently been considered by researchers a critical factor in interpersonal relationships. This factor prevents experiencing and expressing emotion via influencing affections, and since sexual satisfaction is a type of taking and giving pleasure it affects sexual satisfaction, too. The development and consolidation of a person's understanding of himself/herself as a sexual person or sexual self–concept is an important task during adolescence and youth. This study was designed to develop a model of sexual satisfaction based on alexithymia and sexual knowledge and attitude in couples with considering the mediating role of sexual self–concept.
Methods: In this correlational study, we used structural equation modeling. The study population included all couples referred to counseling centers in Sanandaj City, Iran due to boredom and marital problems in 2018–2019. Of whom, 300 people were selected by convenience sampling method. The inclusion criteria were couples referring to the counseling centers of Sanandaj with a high score in marital boredom (score greater than 55). The exclusion criterion was not answering the questions of the questionnaires. The study instruments included the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (Bagby et al., 1994), Sexual Knowledge and Attitude Scale (Besharat & Ranjbar Kelagari, 2013), Multidimensional Sexual Self–Concept Questionnaire (Snell, 1998), and Sexual Satisfaction Scale (Hudson et al., 1981). Frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to describe the obtained data. To analyze the data, the Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling were performed in SPSS version 22 and SmartPLS software. The level of significance in this research was considered 0.05.
Results: The results showed that sexual self–concept had a significant direct effect on sexual satisfaction (p<0.001, β=0.464); sexual knowledge and attitude had a significant direct effect on sexual self–concept (p<0.001, β=0.224) and sexual satisfaction (p<0.001, β=0.297), and alexithymia had a significant direct effect on sexual self–concept (p<0.001, β=–0.613) and sexual satisfaction (p<0.001, β=–0.206). In addition, sexual knowledge and attitude indirectly and through sexual self–concept had a positive and significant effect on sexual satisfaction (p<0.001, β=0.104); also, alexithymia indirectly and through sexual self–concept, had an inverse and significant effect on sexual satisfaction (p<0.001, β=–0.285).
Conclusion: Based on the findings of this research, sexual knowledge and attitude as well as alexithymia have a significant effect on sexual satisfaction indirectly and through sexual self–concept.