The Predictive Role of Alexithymia in Marital Satisfaction and Forgiveness among Women with Antisocial Personality

Persons with personality disorders have characteristics that cause tension and conflict in their marital relationships and life and reduce sustainability of their marriage. The objective of this study was to determine the predictive role alexithymia in marital satisfaction and marital forgiveness among women with antisocial personality. The research method was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of this study included women with divorce cases referred to the counseling department of municipality districts 1 and 2 of Tehran from October to December 2017. Participants included 123 women who were selected by convenience sampling method. Data were collected using Marital Forgiveness Questionnaire, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, marital satisfaction, and multivariate clinical trials of Million-3. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression tests using SPSS-22 software. The mean (SD) age of participants was 37.2 (4.13). The mean (SD) score of difficulty in identifying feelings was 14.3 (2.1), difficulty in describing emotions 12.6 (3.1), objective thinking 16.4 (5.9), lexithymia 44.3 (11.8), marital satisfaction 76.7 (14.1) and marital forgiveness 31.5 (7.6). Difficulty in identifying feelings (P<0.001), difficulty in describing emotions (P<0.05), objective thinking (P<0.01), and alexithymia (P<0.001) could negatively predict forgiveness and marital satisfaction. Higher scores of difficulty to describe feelings identify emotions and think objectively correlated with fewer score of forgiveness and marital satisfaction. The study showed that the components of emotional weakness significantly predicted forgiveness and marital satisfaction. It seems that the difficulty in identifying feelings, describing emotions and having objective thinking significantly affected and reduced marital satisfaction of women with antisocial personality.