Investigating the Mediating Role of Sexual Satisfaction in the Relationship between Split Conflicts and the Quality of Marital Relationship in Iranian Married People

Split conflicts play a key role in the quality of the marital relationship. The purpose of the study was to investigate the mediating role of sexual satisfaction in the relationship between split conflicts and the quality of marital relationships.

The research method was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population included all married people living in Tehran. Of this population, 308 people were selected using the convenience sampling method and completed the online survey icluding three questionnaires; Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire, Sexual Satisfaction Index, and Self-Critical Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling by Amos software.

The results of this study showed that sexual satisfaction and reassured-self have significant positive relationships with all components of marital satisfaction and its total score and inadequate-self and hated-self have significant negative relationships with all components of marital satisfaction. Inadequate-self and hated-self have significant negative relationships with sexual satisfaction. Moreover, reassured-self has a significant positive relationship with sexual satisfaction. The structural equation modeling analysis showed that hated-self and reassured-self have no significant effect. For inadequate-self, the direct and indirect effects were found significant with -0.22 and -0.12 beta sizes, respectively, after modifying the model (p <.01). This is concluded that split conflicts can be an important variable related to the quality of marital satisfaction, because in addition to being related to it, it can explain changes in the quality of the marital relationship by affecting sexual satisfaction.