The Mediating Role of Spiritual Tendencies in the Relationship between Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Marital Adjustment

In recent decades, marital satisfaction and adjustment as the main issues in family life, have been widely focused on by researchers. The current study aimed to investigate the mediating role of spiritual tendencies in the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation and marital adjustment.

This study is correlational and applied. The statistical population included the couples aged 20-60 who had been living together for at least two years and were still living together at the time of study. Out of them, 400 participants (200 male and 200 female) were selected using convenience sampling method. SC, CERQ and DAS were used as the research instruments. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the data. In this study, all ethical considerations were observed and no conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

The results showed that the model has a statistically acceptable fit index. The positive relationship between the variables shows that spiritual tendencies along side with cognitive emotion regulation predict marital adjustment. The mediating role of spiritual tendencies is explained by the significant relationship and correlation between positive emotion cognitive regulation with marital adjustment. Based on the model fit indices, the significance of all the paths related to the variable of marital adjustment is proved.

According to theory, cognitive emotional regulation focuses on couples’ emotions and creates an opportunity for cognitive processing (including cognitive processing in the face of anger and rage). This, in turn, improves couples’ relationships. Spiritual tendencies are a significant predictor of marital adjustment and marital satisfaction and enhance the quality of marital relationship.