Comparing Sexual Satisfaction and Emotional Divorce Between Couples Going Through Divorce and Normal Couples Living in Bandar Abbas, Iran

Divorce is a stressful experience in life and is considered one of the ten stressful life events. Efficient and effective emotional and sexual interactions play an important role in a couple's married life. Emotional divorce is the first step in the formal divorce process and is a hidden and unregistered phenomenon in many couples who are not officially separated—they live together without feelings. Six components have been proposed for female sexual function and satisfaction: sexual desire (sexual desire), sexual arousal, lubrication or hydration (arousal stability), orgasm, satisfaction, and pain. Sex is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that includes biological, psychological, interpersonal, and individual characteristics. Considering that in emotional divorce, the positive emotions and feelings of the couple for each other diminish and are replaced by negative emotions, and the couple's sexual satisfaction with each other decreases, it is necessary to study this issue. This study aimed to compare sexual satisfaction and emotional divorce in couples asking for a divorce with normal couples living in Bandar Abbas, Iran.

The research method was causal–comparative. The study population included all couples asking for a divorce and normal couples in Bandar Abbas in the summer of 2019. The couples asking for divorce were selected as the sample group through the available sampling method. After matching for gender and education, 160 normal couples were also selected by the available sampling method. The couples responded to the Sexual Satisfaction Questionnaire (Larson et al., 1998) and Emotional Divorce Questionnaire (Gutman, 1994). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the obtained data. Descriptive statistics include mean and standard deviation. Also, after checking the assumption of normality of data distribution, the independent t test was used in SPSS version 22 software at a significance level of 0.05.

The results showed that couples asking for a divorce and normal couples had significant differences in sexual satisfaction and its components (desire to have sexual relations, sexual attitude, quality of sexual life, sexual compatibility) (p<0.001) and emotional divorce and its components (separation and distance from each other, feeling of loneliness and isolation, need for company and conversation, feeling of boredom and restlessness) (p<0.001). Couples asking for divorce scored lower in sexual satisfaction than normal couples, while in emotional divorce, the score of divorcing couples was higher than normal couples.

Based on the research findings, there is a significant difference between the two groups of divorcing couples and normal couples in sexual satisfaction and emotional divorce and all their components. Therefore, it is necessary to design emotional and sexual interventions in relation to reducing the marital problems of couples.