Meta-analysis of the Relationship Between Sacrifice and Marital Quality

Objective: Ignoring the behaviors and activities that are desirable for one or practicing it in a way that is not desirable for him or her is considered sacrifice. The results of studies on the relationship between sacrifice and marital quality are different and contradictory. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to estimate the overall effect size of the relationship between sacrifice and marital quality. Methods: To achieve this purpose, the related literature concerning these variables was investigated in dissertations and research articles published in scientific journals from 1998 to 2017. Based on the research inclusion criterion, 21 research studies, including 6 dissertations and 15 articles were considered for meta-analysis, measuring 76 effects size for the relationship between sacrifice and marital quality. The coefficients and indicators were calculated by the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA-2) software. Results: Investigating the publication bias showed that studies on the relationship between sacrifice and marital quality were not biased. The results also showed a significantly positive correlation (r=0.179, P<0.01) between sacrifice and marital quality. Although according to Cohen's criteria, this figure is low. Investigating the role of moderator variables revealed that the relationship between sacrificing behaviors and marital quality was influenced by the moderator variables such as the type of publication and research place so that the effect size of research in Iran increased to 0.425. Conclusion: Results of this meta-analysis indicate that sacrifice is influenced by social and cultural context. Theoretical and practical implications of this research results were discussed in detail