The Impact of Social Media Use Culture on Sexual Satisfaction and Emotional Divorce among Married Women with the Mediating Role of Body Image and Gender Role Expectations

Mohammad Reza Heshmati ¹ ( PhD student in Sociology, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities, Kashan University, Kashan, Iran )

Submited date : 2025-06-15 Accepted date : 2025-08-21

Keywords: Cultural use of social media, Sexual satisfaction, Emotional divorce, Body image, Gender role expectations,

Abstract :

The present study aimed to investigate the impact of social media use culture on sexual satisfaction and emotional divorce, with the mediating role of body image and gender role expectations among married women in Tehran. The statistical population comprised all married women living in various districts of Tehran, from whom 384 participants were selected through convenient sampling procedure. This research was a descriptive-correlational design based on structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Data were collected using standardized questionnaires including Social Media Use Integration Scale (Jenkins-(Guarnieri, Wright, & Johnson, 2013), Body Appreciation Scale-2 (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015), Gender Role Expectations Questionnaire (Bem, 1974), Index of Sexual Satisfaction (Hudson, 1992), and Emotional Divorce Scale (Gottman, 1994. Path analysis and Sobel test results indicated that the cultural use of social media had significant direct and indirect impacts on sexual satisfaction and emotional divorce. Furthermore, higher engagement with social media was associated with a more negative body image and reinforced stereotypical gender expectations, which in turn were significantly related to lower sexual satisfaction and higher emotional divorce. These findings suggested that media culture could weaken marital relationship quality through the internalization of unrealistic ideals. The final model demonstrated acceptable goodness-of-fit indices.

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