Mediating role of relationship attributions and destructive conflict resolution strategies on the relationship between attachment styles and marital quality

Several studies show that attachment styles can have a significant impact on the couple’s marital quality. This impact can be direct or indirect and can be in interaction with other significant psychological variables such as relationship attributions and conflict resolution strategies. This study aimed to investigate direct and indirect effects of attachment styles on women’s marital quality، considering relationship attributions (causal and responsibility attributions) and destructive conflict resolution strategies (dominating and avoiding strategies) as mediators. Participants in the study were 130 married women who were living in the city of Hamadan and were selected using multiphasic random sampling method. Participants completed measures of Attachment Styles (ECR-S)، Marital Quality (QMI)، Conflict Resolution Strategies (ROCI-2) and Relationship Attributions (RAM). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and also the indirect effects were tested using bootstrapping method of AMOS/18 software. Results showed that statistically، the data showed a good fit for the proposed model. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that anxiety and avoidance attachment styles have negative indirect impact on marital quality with the mediation of causal and responsibility attributions and dominating and avoiding conflict resolution strategies. However، anxiety and avoidance attachment styles didn’t have any direct effect on marital quality.