The Role of Intimacy, Loneliness, and Alexithymia in Marital Satisfaction Prediction

Identification of psychological factors that are involved in couples’ dissatisfaction, is of great importance. This research was performed to investigate the role of intimacy, feeling of loneliness, and alexithymia in the prediction of marital satisfaction.
This study was performed as a descriptive-correlational study on all students of Science and Research Branch of Qazvin Islamic Azad University, 2013-2014. A total of 375 students (187 males and 188 females), were selected using available sampling method. Research tools included Enrich Marriage Questionnaire, Walker and Thompson Intimacy Questionnaire, Dehshiri et al. Loneliness Questionnaire, and Toronto Alexithymia Questionnaire. Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise regression tests.
In this study, there was a significant positive relationship between intimacy and marital satisfaction. There was significant negative relationship between loneliness, loneliness caused by family, and emotional loneliness with marital satisfaction. Also, there was a significant negative relationship between alexithymia and its components and marital satisfaction.
Based on the results of this study, intimacy, feeling of loneliness, and alexithymia play a role in marital satisfaction prediction. According to the results of stepwise regression, it was revealed that intimacy, loneliness, and alexithymia, respectively have the most contribution in marital satisfaction in and explain 52% of the variance of marital satisfaction.