Relationship between emotional skills with marital stability with mediating role of communication patterns

Having a successful and stable marriage is due to several factors, the most important of which are effective communication skills, which are realized in the context of emotional skills and subsequent communication patterns. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between emotional skills and marital stability with the mediating role of communicative patterns.

The study design was descriptive correlation type and the study population consisted of married men and women living in 12 districts of the Karaj city in the autumn and winter of 2017 which a sample of 350 men and women were selected from recreational, cultural and educational centers by available sampling. The study tools were Toronto Alexithymia Scale (Bagby et al., 1984), Communication Patterns Questionnaire (Christensen & Sullaway, 1984) and Marital Instability Index (Booth et al., 1983). To analyze the data, structural equation modeling, Amos software and Maximum Likelihood were used.

In this study the inefficient communication pattern significantly mediated the relationship between emotional skills and marital stability (β=0.149, P<0.05).

One of the factors affecting couples' communication patterns, or what causes couples to inappropriately communicate, can be emotional skills. By teaching the communication and emotional skills of couples, they can express their expectations from their partners. At the same time, they can succeed in controlling their partner undesirable behaviors and improving their behaviors and experience marital stability.