Associations of marital quality and sexual satisfaction in women with early marriage in Iran: a descriptive-correlational study

Abstract

Abstract Background Child marriage occurs partly in most regions of the world and has long been a public health concern all over the world. The current study has been designed to investigate the associations of sexual satisfaction and marital quality in women with early marriage Methods This descriptive-correlational study was done on 70 married women under 18–20 years. Sampling was non-random, and the sampling method was stratified multistage. The data collection tools included questionnaires on women's demographic-fertility characteristics, marital quality, sexual satisfaction, sexual self-efficacy and social support. A significance level of P < 0.05 was set for the analysis. Results The results of the study showed that individuals with very good sexual satisfaction and high sexual self-efficacy had a non-distress marital quality (p = < 0.001). Based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient, sexual self-efficacy, and social support were significantly and positively correlated with marital quality (r = 0.73, p < 0.001 and r = 0.55, p < 0.001, respectively), and sexual satisfaction was significantly and negatively correlated with marital quality (r=-0.65, p < 0.001). Conclusion The findings of the present study showed that women with early marriage, high marital quality does not always ensure their favorable sexual satisfaction. Moreover, high sexual self-efficacy and social support cause favorable marital quality.