Marital Satisfaction and Satisfaction With Life: Mediating Role of Sexual Satisfaction in Married Women

Abstract

Background: Marital satisfaction is an integral part of the life of Pakistani women. Married women cannot get satisfied with their lives without marital satisfaction. But previous studies hint at the possible role of sexual satisfaction in addition to marital satisfaction to bring about overall satisfaction with life in married women. Aims: This study was designed with an objective to assess the mediating role of sexual satisfaction in marital satisfaction as a predictor and satisfaction with life as an outcome in married Pakistani women. Previous studies have demonstrated a possible link among marital satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and satisfaction with life. Settings and Design: One hundred married women of childbearing age (18-48 years, M = 29 years) were recruited by a convenient sampling method from the three hospitals of Bahawalpur in the South Punjab state of Pakistan. Methods and Material: Three questionnaires (a) Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale; (b) Index of Sexual Satisfaction, and (c) Satisfaction with Life Scale, were administered to collect the data. Statistical Analysis: The results were analyzed by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM, USA), version 25, and Process Macro, version 3.4, and expressed in the form of descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, and frequencies), mediation analysis, analysis of co-variance, analysis of variance and t test. Results and Conclusion: The unstandardized indirect effects yielded a significant mediation (IE = 0.4757, SE = 0.1786, P < .05, LL = 0.1736, UL = 0.8681). The sexual satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between marital satisfaction and satisfaction with life in married women. It was concluded that married women cannot get marital satisfaction and satisfaction with life without a satisfied sexual life.