The Relationship between Early Maladaptive Schemas and Irrational Beliefs with Marital Conflict, the Moderating Role of Religiosity

One of the most common problems in today's world of families is marital conflict. The purpose of this descriptive-correlational study is to investigate the relationship between early maladaptive schemas and irrational beliefs with marital conflict considering the moderating role of religiosity. The statistical population consisted of the married people in Semnan Province, Iran. A group of 782 people was selected from this population as the study sample using the multi-stage random sampling method. The participants provided some demographical information and answered the Janbozorgi Religious Affiliation, the Marital Conflict, the Early Maladaptive Schemas and the Irrational Beliefs Questionnaires. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and Fisher's Z-test. The results confirmed the challenging role of religiosity in relation to the total score and the five domains of early maladaptive schemas and the total score and irrational beliefs with marital conflict. That is, the relationship between early maladaptive schemas and irrational beliefs with marital conflict is significantly stronger in the group of married people with a high level of religiosity. As a result, religiosity is a variable that takes a different and sometimes negative action under the influence of early maladaptive schemas and irrational beliefs. Thus, strengthening religiosity will not necessarily lead to the inefficiency of maladaptive schemas and the reduction of irrational beliefs.