Predicting marital satisfaction based on emotion regulation in married women considering the mediating role of happiness

BACKGROUND: Marital relationship is described as the most important and fundamental human relationship. This study was conducted aiming to predict marital satisfaction based on the emotion regulation in married women, considering the mediating role of happiness. METHODS: This was a correlational study conducted based on a communicational design using the drawing conceptual model and path analysis method. The data of the present study were collected during February to May 2017. For this purpose, among married women with chronic diseases who referred to the subspecialty Naft Hospital of Tehran, Iran for annual check-ups, 350 women were selected based on the average of the three recent related studies and using the respondent-driven sampling (RDS) method. Data were collected using a demographic checklist, the ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale (EMS), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ). For data analysis, regression analysis, drawing conceptual model, and path analysis method were used in LISREL software and SPSS software. RESULTS: The data analysis showed that the emotion regulation variable with the coefficient of b = -0.258 and happiness variable with the coefficient of b = 0.475 correlated with the marital satisfaction variable. Additionally, the emotion regulation variable predicted the happiness with the coefficient of β = -0.436 (P < 0.0001 for all variables). CONCLUSION: The results of this study, in line with research background, indicate a significant role of emotion regulation in explaining the marital satisfaction index with mediating role of happiness. The results of this study can be associated with clinical applications in the field of family interventions, couples therapy, and sex therapy.