THE MEDIATING ROLE OF SEXUAL SELF-EFFICACY IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS AND MARITAL SATISFACTION IN MARRIED WOMEN IN TEHRAN

Satisfaction with marital life depends on several factors, and one of the important factor that influencing marital satisfaction is sexual self-efficacy. The aim of this study was to determine the mediating role of sexual self-efficacy between personality characteristics and marital satisfaction.

This study was a correlational study. The statistical population of the study included all married women living in Tehran. In this study, 290 married women were selected through convenient sampling and they completed NEO-Five Factor Inventory (FFI), Enrich Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire and sexual self-efficacy questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient, path analysis and bootstrap test were used to analyze the data using SPSS and AMOS softwares.

the results showed that there were significant correlations between personality characteristics (conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism) and sexual self-efficacy with marital satisfaction and sexual self-efficacy can significantly have a mediating role between extraversion & neuroticism and marital satisfaction.

The results showed that low levels of neuroticism and high levels of extraversion can increase marital satisfaction through increasing sexual self-efficacy. Due to effect of marital satisfaction on physical and psychological health of couples, it suggested that therapists pay more attention to the components of this study, especially sexual self-efficacy.