Marital Self-Regulation in Married Women based on Emotional Schemas and Behavioral Systems: With Emphasis on the Role of Mediating Social Exchange Style in Interpersonal relationships

The aim of this study was to modeling marital self-regulation based on emotional schemas and behavioral systems with the mediating role of social exchange styles.

This descriptive study was conducted using a correlational design. Statistical population was all married female students of Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, in the 2020-21 academic year of whom 420 students were selected using convenient sampling. They completed the Behavioral Self-Regulation for Effective Relationship Scale by Wilson et al., the Leahy's Emotional Schema Scale, the Carver and White's BIS/BAS scales and the Leybman's Social Exchange Styles Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using structural equations and Amos software.

In addition to the significant direct effect of emotional schemas( adaptive and maladaptive) and behavioral activation on marital self-regulation, fairness and individualism played a positive mediating role between behavioral activation and adaptive emotional schemas in marital self-regulation. In addition, individualism played a negative mediating role between behavioral inhibition and maladaptive emotional schemas in marital self-regulation.

In addition to the positive role of adaptive emotional schemas, behavioral activation and fairness style in marital self-regulation, the individualism style of social exchange had a different function in marital self-regulation of married women based on the type of emotional schemas and brain-behavioral systems and it could have a different effect on the cost/benefit estimation