The Relationship BetweenSexual Knowledge and Attitude, and Relational Beliefs with Emotional Divorce

In recent years, the number of divorces in Iran has increased dramatically. However, hidden from sight are the relationships which despite the presence of necessary factors for divorce, are still sustainable and in fact, suffer from emotionaldivorce. Therefore the purpose of this research is to study the relationship between sexual knowledge and attitude and also relationship beliefs and emotional divorce. In this descriptive correlational study, a sample of 230 female married nurses was selected from the hospitals of Khorramabad city, through simple random sampling. The instruments employed in this study included Sexual Knowledge and Attitude Scale (SKAS), Relationship Belief Inventory (RBI) and Emotional Divorce Scale (EDS). Based on the results of Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis, a significant negative relationship was found between the sexual knowledge and attitude and also relationship beliefs and the degree of emotional divorce. The belief in destructiveness of disagreement, sexual attitude, mind reading expectation, belief in unchangeability of spouse, and sexual perfectionism, respectively, could best predict emotional divorce. Family counselors and couples therapists could gain a better knowledge of the phenomenon of emotional divorce by studying the aforementioned variables and hence implement necessary interventions