Model of self-silencing and tendency to divorce with the mediating role of marital conflict in married women

This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of marital conflict in the relationship between self-silencing and the tendency to divorce in married women. The present research was descriptive-correlation based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this research was all married women of Mashhad City in 2021, and 240 of them were selected as a sample. Research tools included the divorce Tendency Scale (DTS, Rusbult, et al, 1986), the Marital Conflict Questionnaire (MCQ, Sanaei, 2000), and the Silencing the Self Scale (STSS, Jack & Dill, 1992). Structural equation modeling analysis was used to analyze the data. The results of the structural equation modeling analysis indicated that the model fit in well. The findings showed that self-silencing could indirectly predict the tendency to divorce through marital conflict (p<0.001). It can be concluded that self-silencing and marital conflict play a key role in women's tendency to divorce, and it is necessary to pay attention to these factors in interaction with each other in programs to improve the quality of married life.