MEDIATING ROLE OF SEXUAL ATTITUDE IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ROMANTIC ATTACHMENT STYLES AND MUTUAL RELATIONSHIPS IN COUPLES REFERRED TO DIVORCE CENTERS

Extramarital relationships are the cause of many problems, conflicts, and marital breakdowns and can have devastating consequences for family members, friends, and subsequently community, so the purpose of the present study is to investigate the mediating role of sexual attitude in relation to romantic attachment styles and extramarital relationships among couples referred to divorce centers.

The research method was descriptive-correlation and in particular structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this study was all couples referred to divorce counseling centers in districts 1,2,3,4 in Tehran. To determine the sample size according to the number of observed variables and allocation of the coefficient of 20 for each observed variable (13 variables observed in the model), 270 subjects were selected as the sample size by purposive sampling. Data were collected using the standard Extramarital Relationship Questionnaire (JEIQ), Sexual Attitude Scale (Happiness and Sublime, 1), and Romance Attachment Styles (Behavioral Styles) (BSQ).

The results showed that there was a significant direct relationship between romantic attachment styles and sexual attitude with extramarital relationships. The research model was fitted and confirmed and 0.90 of the variance of the meta-marital relationships was explained by romantic attachment styles and sexual attitude and also sexual attitude had a mediating role in the relationship between romantic attachment styles and meta-relationship.

Paying attention to the relationship between attachment style and sexual attitude is one of the most important variables in creating adaptive attachment style in the area of improving family status and social support which is primarily aimed at enhancing the understanding of interpersonal relationships with regard to conditions and then lead to cohesion of families and lower divorce rates.