مجله علوم روانشناختی (Mar 2024)
Structural modeling for determining marital infidelity based on self-compassion with mediating role of emotional maturity
Abstract
Background: Research evidence shows that various factors are relevant in the propensity to engage in marital infidelity. On the one hand, self-compassion and emotional maturity are two key variables in marital relationships and couples' lives. Researchers have neglected the role of these variables as a model, and have not determined the effect of self-compassion on the propensity to engage in marital infidelity through the mediation of emotional maturity. Aims: This research as a structural model explains the marital infidelity based on self-compassion with the mediating role of emotional maturity. Method: The current research is descriptive and correlational and of structural equations type. Its statistical population consisted of all married women who referred towel-being centers in Behshahr, Iran during the three months of December, January and February (2021). From among them, we selected 385 people by non-random sampling method. All participants completed the Marital Infidelity Propensity Questionnaires of Drigotas et al. (1999), Neff's Self-Compassion (2003), and Singh and Bhargava's Emotional Maturity Scale (1990). We used Pearson correlation and structural equation model for data analysis. Results: The results showed that there is a negative and significant relationship between self-compassion and emotional maturity on the one hand and the propensity to engage in marital infidelity on the other (P<0.01). According to the results, emotional maturity (-0.382) and self-compassion (-0.368) have a direct and significant effect on the propensity to engage in marital infidelity (P<0.01). Self-compassion had an indirect and significant effect (-0.185) on the propensity to engage in marital infidelity through the mediation of emotional maturity. Conclusion: Therefore, we can say that the structural model of explaining the propensity to engage in marital infidelity based on self-compassion with the mediator role of emotional maturity has a favorable fitting and the relationships and effects between the variables are significant. Accordingly, the use of these variables in the framework of a structural model can help counselors, psychologists, therapists, social science researchers, and other professionals.
