Prediction of Marital Adjustment Based on Metacognitive Beliefs with Mediating Effect of Marital Conflicts

Marital adjustment is a state among couples in which there is an overall feeling of happiness and satisfaction with their marriage and each other. But how important could the role of two factors of metacognitive beliefs and the mediating effect of marital conflicts in marital adjustment be. The purpose of this study was to predict marital adjustment based on meta-cognitive beliefs and mediating role of marital conflicts in married students. The research method is a descriptive and correlational design and structural equation modeling method. The statistical population in this study was all married students studying at Azad University of Tehran branches who had criteria for entering the research. The sample size was 400 people, 200 married women and 200 married men who were determined according to sample size estimation in research based on structural equation modeling. The measurement tools consisted of the Spanier modified marital adjustment questionnaire (1976), Wales meta-cognitive beliefs questionnaire (1997), and Barati and Sanyi marital conflicts questionnaires(1999). The results of the measurement model showed that subscales of research all have significant factor loadings. Also, model fitting indicators after covariance between some markers of metacognitive beliefs and marital conflicts were in desirable condition. The results of the hypothesis test showed that metacognitive beliefs on the marital adjustment of married students have indirect effects (due to marital conflicts) (p<0.05). Marital conflicts directly affect marital adjustment(p<0.05).  According to the results of the study, marital conflicts have a mediator role in predicting the marital adjustment of married students(p<0.05).  On one hand, marital conflicts are influenced by metacognitive beliefs and on the other hand they can have significant effects on marital adjustment.