Determining the Effect Size of Optimism and Religious Orientation on Marital Conflicts

In recent decades, the family system in Iran has changed due to internal and external characteristics, including an increased rate of marital conflicts, leading to the collapse of marital relations as one of their most challenging issues. Marital conflicts result from couples’ inconsistency in their desires and expectations and irresponsible behaviors in marital relationships. Optimism is an essential factor affecting marital life, which may be impaired by marital conflicts. Religious belief is another critical feature in marital life. Religious orientation is an individual's attitude towards religion. Accordingly, it includes internal and external aspects. The external religious orientation aims to gain personal interests, maintain social status, and satisfy selfish desires. The internal religious orientation, on the other hand, is directed by inner values and beliefs and seeks to gain meaning and value for religious beliefs and actions. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect of optimism and religious orientation on marital conflicts.

The present study employed a descriptive correlational design. The study’s statistical population included all couples referring to Bahar Andisheh Clinic in Mashhad City, Iran, in 2018. In total, 100 eligible individuals voluntarily participated in the study and were selected by the convenience sampling method. For data collection, the Life Orientation Test (Shearer and Carver, 1985) for measuring optimism, the Religious Orientation Scale (Allport & Ross, 1967), and the Marital Conflicts Questionnaire (Sanaei Zaker, 2008) were used. To analyze the collected data, descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis were used in SPSS at the significant level of 0.05.

The obtained findings indicated a positive correlation between external religious orientation and marital conflicts (p<0.001, r=0.538); however, there was a negative correlation between internal religious orientation and marital conflicts (p<0.001, r=-0.544) as well as optimism and marital conflicts (p<0.001, r= -0.354). Additionally, the multiple linear regression data indicated that the external religious orientation (β=0.309, p=0.004) positively predicted marital conflicts; however, the internal religious orientation (β= -0.281, p=0.011) and optimism (β= - 0.193, p=0.024) negatively predicted marital conflicts. The effect size concerned external religious orientation (0.091), internal religious orientation (0.071), and optimism (0.056).

Based on the current research findings, religious orientation and optimism could predict marital conflicts. Therefore, to reduce marital conflicts, it is recommended to study the role of optimism and religious orientation and provide solutions to improve them.