The role of differentiation, meaningfulness in life and forgiveness in predicting martial satisfaction

The failure of couples in resolving marital problems could be expressed in various forms so that each of them can be a threat to the health of marital relationship. One common type of marital discord is marital dissatisfaction, which is affected by many factors, including lack of differentiation, forgiveness and meaningfulness in life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of differentiation, life meaningfulness and forgiveness in predicting marital satisfaction among married female students of Islamic Azad University of Dezful. For this purpose, a sample of 256 married female students was selected. Four types of instruments were used: Skowron’s revised Differentiation of Self Questionnaire (DSI-R), the Life-Regard Index (LRI), the Forgiveness scale (FS), and Enrich Couple Scales (ECS). The results showed that a significant positive relationship existed between differentiation, life meaningfulness, and forgiveness and marital satisfaction. Results also showed that differentiation, meaningfulness in life, and forgiveness had a important role in explaining and predicting the variance of marital satisfaction.