Predicting marital commitment based on basic psychological needs and intimacy with mediation of self-differentiation

The purpose of this study was to predict marital commitment based on basic psychological needs and intimacy with mediation of self-differentiation.

Method was correlation and the statistical population included married women and men referred to counseling and psychological centers of Tehran City in 2018. Among them, using random sampling method, from District Two; Avaye Rahayee Pendare Nick, Varesh, Fahm va Raya, from District Five; Tafakor, Bahare Zendegi, Rahe Noor, Aramesh and sadeghiyeh, from District Seven; Mehrdad, Rahe No, Kavoshe Novin, Rahayee And Iran Andish, from District 12 Refah, Nure Saa’dat, Hemayat, Fasle No and Hamrahan va Hasti and from District 16; Omid, Be’sat, Hami and Me’raj, 248 Women and 155 Married according to Klein (2016) with a Ratio of 10 up to 20 subjects were selected for each variable and probability of sample dropout. Tools were Marital Commitment Inventory (Adams & Jones, 1997); Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale (Gagne, 2003); Intimacy Scale (Walker & Thompson, 1983) and Differentiation of Self Inventory (Skowron & Schmitt, 2003). After excluding two distorted questionnaires and one outlier data, data were analyzed by structural equation modeling.

In the present study, the total path coefficient between marital intimacy and marital commitment was positive and significant (β=0.027, P=0.001). The total path coefficient between basic psychological needs and marital commitment was also positive and significant (β=0.087, P=0.001). The indirect path coefficient between marital intimacy and marital commitment (P=0.002, β=0.126) and the indirect path coefficient between basic psychological needs and marital commitment (P=0.001, β=0.186) were positive and significant.

Based on the findings, it is suggested that counseling and psychological centers provide trainings for married couples how to satisfy their spouses' basic needs and ways to increase marital intimacy. It is also suggested to focus on measuring couple’s level of differentiation and its recovery.