ROLE OF ADULT ATTACHMENT, CONFLICT RESOLUTION, COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE AND SOCIAL SUPPORT IN MARITAL SATISFACTION AMONG COUPLES

Abstract

The present research was carried out to explore the adult attachment and its association on the marital satisfaction among couples in Pakistan. The main objective of the current study was to find out the relationship of adult attachment for marital satisfaction among couples and also to find out the relationship of husbands` attachment dimensions on the wives’ marital satisfaction and impact of wives’ attachment dimensions on the husband marital satisfaction. Present research further explored three factors i.e. conflict resolution, social support, and communication competence and their role as mediating variables between attachment and marital satisfaction. The research comprised three studies. Study I deals with translation and determination of psychometric properties of Experiences in Close Relationships- Revised questionnaire (Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000); Enrich Couple Scales (Olson, 1996); and Social Provision Scale (Cutrona & Russell, 1987). Part I of study- I deals with ttranslation, adaptation, and cross language validation of the instrument. Part II deals with pretesting Instruments on a small sample and also determines the construct validity like Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Initially the researcher translated the scale into Urdu language and then carries out pre-testing on a small sample of 48 married individuals. The results of pretesting indicated that all the three instruments were showing satisfactory reliabilities indices. Afterwards the translated instruments were ready for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on a sample of 300 married individuals. As results of CFA reduced final instruments were administered to a sample of 96 married couples (192 individuals) to verify the psychometric properties and testing the preliminary hypothesis in pilot study. Correlation coefficients were computed as indices to verify the magnitude and direction among various variables. Finally main study was conducted with N=350 (175 couples) on diverse groups on the basis of age, education, income, family system, length of relationship and number of children. There are three mediating variables, such as, conflict resolution, social support, and communication competence which are hypothesized to mediate the relationship between adult attachment and marital satisfaction. Consistent with hypothesis the research shows that three separate models were drawn to check the path analysis in AMOS software and these models are based upon Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) and it is found that conflict resolution is contributing as a mediating variable between attachment and marital satisfaction. For example anxious female is affecting her own conflict resolution as compared to avoidant female who aeffects the partners` marital satisfaction. Communication competence of both partners is fully mediating the relationship between avoidance and marital satisfaction. Similarly, social support is fully mediating the relationship between both partners` avoidance and their marital satisfaction. Finally, it was concluded that couples with anxious and avoidant attachment reported less marital satisfaction and there is a significant role of conflict resolution, communication competence and social support in strengthening the marital satisfaction. In the end, the findings are discussed in light of Pakistani cultural context and its implications in the Pakistani society.