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

Background: The foundation of a healthy community is based on the healthycommunication between family members. In this regard, marital satisfactionis one of the important factors in strengthening the family relationships,which can be affected by the type of marriage as well as the familydemographic and cultural components.Methods: This study was conducted on 120 married women in Taft.Participants were selected by systematic sampling method using Cochranformula. The research tools were Enrique Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire(1998) and a researcher-made questionnaire. Validity of the latterquestionnaire was assessed using face validity and its reliability wasconfirmed by Cronbach’s alpha.Results: According to the results, the marital satisfaction of married womenwas in moderate level. Moreover, marital satisfaction was higher among thevillagers (P-value = 0.006), non-familial marriages (P-value = 0.006), andhousewives (P-value = 0.042) than other groups. Considering the type ofmarriage, forced marriage (P-value ≤ 0.50) showed a significant relationshipwith lack of life satisfaction; in other words, a higher degree of satisfactionwas 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) explainedabout 43.5 percent of the dependent variable variations.Conclusion: Eventually, increase in the education level of couples decreasedtheir life satisfaction; whereas, marital satisfaction increased by increase ofage, duration of marriage, number of children. Moreover, marital satisfactionwas lower in forded marriages.

Keywords:

Forced Marriage , Education , Marital Satisfaction , Married Women , Marriage Age