Abstract
Background & Objectives: Satisfaction with marital life is one of the most important and important issues in the marital relationship. Research suggests that communication patterns and relationships between couples can predict the quality of life and marital satisfaction and that quality of marital relationships can maintain the relationship between couples. Another variable that appears to be contributing to marital satisfaction is coping styles with stressful situations in life, namely coping styles. Close and romantic relationships are other factors that can influence marital satisfaction. Love styles illustrate some of the factors through examples that confirm and emphasize the success of relationships. Different attitudes toward love, partly derived from one's previous family experiences, can influence feelings and behaviors and be classified into six main styles. The six love styles include Eros, Storge, and Lodus (primary styles) and Mania, Pragma, and Agape (secondary styles). This study aimed to determine the predictive value of marital satisfaction based on communication and stress coping skills and love–making styles in married women university students.
Methods: The research method was descriptive–correlational and the statistical population consisted of all married female students of Tonekabon University, Tonekabon City, Iran, in the academic year of 2018–19. A total of 250 subjects were selected by statistical sampling method. The inclusion criteria were as follows: undergraduate to doctoral students, being in the age range of 20–45 years, full consent of people to participate in the research, and lacking a mental disorder. The exclusion criteria were suffering from psychological problems (such as depression) and the use of psychiatric drugs. The instruments used in this study were as follows: Enrich Marital Inventory (Fowers & Olson, 1989), Interpersonal Communication Skills Questionnaire (Mahmoodi et al., 2017), Stress Coping Styles Questionnaire (Lazarus & Folkman, 1985), and Love Attitude Scale (Hendrick & Hondrick, 1989). In this research, data analysis was in the field of descriptive statistics using frequency, frequency percentage, mean and standard deviation. To test the purpose of the research, the Pearson correlation test was used to examine the relationship between predictor variables (communication skills, stress coping skills, and lovemaking styles) and one criterion variable (marital satisfaction). Also, multiple linear regression analysis (step by step) was used, and among the predictor variables, the variable with better predictability and greater relationship was selected. All statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 22 software. The significance level of the tests in this research was considered 0.05.
Results: The results showed that the effect of Storge lovemaking style (β= –0.29; p<0.001) and Eros lovemaking style (β= –0.21; p<0.001) had a negative and significant marital satisfaction. The effect of communication skills (β=0.27; p<0.001) and coping skills with emotional stress (β=0.13; p=0.029) was significant and positive.
Conclusion: Based on the findings, there was a relationship between lovemaking styles, communication skills, and problem–oriented and emotion–focused stress coping skills with marital satisfaction. Also, the variables of Storge lovemaking style, communication skills, Eros lovemaking style, and emotion–focused coping skills had the power of predictor of marital satisfaction.