A Survey of Factors Related to Marital Satisfaction among Married Women in Taft City, Iran

Abstract

Background: The foundation of a healthy community is based on the healthy communication between family members. In this regard, marital satisfaction is one of the important factors in strengthening the family relationships, which can be affected by the type of marriage as well as the family demographic and cultural components. Methods: This study was conducted on 120 married women in Taft. Participants were selected by systematic sampling method using Cochran formula. The research tools were Enrique Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire (1998) and a researcher-made questionnaire. Validity of the latter questionnaire was assessed using face validity and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha. Results: According to the results, the marital satisfaction of married women was in moderate level. Moreover, marital satisfaction was higher among the villagers (P-value = 0.006), non-familial marriages (P-value = 0.006), and housewives (P-value = 0.042) than other groups. Considering the type of marriage, forced marriage (P-value ≤ 0.50) showed a significant relationship with lack of life satisfaction; in other words, a higher degree of satisfaction was observed in unforced marriages. According to the regression analysis, four variables of couple’s age differences, education level differences, duration of marriage, and type of marriage (forced and unforced) explained about 43.5 percent of the dependent variable variations. Conclusion: Eventually, increase in the education level of couples decreased their life satisfaction; whereas, marital satisfaction increased by increase of age, duration of marriage, number of children. Moreover, marital satisfaction was lower in forded marriages.