Developing a causal model for predicting marital instability based on dark personality and ego strength with the mediation of marital quality in married women

Subject Areas : social psychology

Arezoo Javadi Koma ¹ (Ph.D. student, Consulting Department, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran)
Mandana Niknam ² (Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Khatam University, Tehran, Iran)
Zohreh Sadeghiafjeh ³ (Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Varamin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Varamin, Iran)
Navid Mirzakhani ⁴ (Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran)

Received: 2023-08-19 Accepted : 2024-01-28 Published : 2024-05-04

Keywords: Dark Personality, Ego Strength, Empathy, Marriage Instability, Married Women,

Abstract :

The aim of the present study was to determine the fit of the developed causal model of marital instability based on dark personality and ego strength with the mediation of marital quality and in married women. The correlation research method was structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the current research is all married women who referred to the health centers of the 22 districts of Tehran in the period from August to November of 2022. 430 people were selected as the sample size from the health centers of the 22 districts of Tehran using the available sampling method. Edwards et al.'s (1987) marriage instability questionnaire, Johnson and Webster's three dark personality traits (2010), Markstrom et al.'s (1997) ego strength, and Busby et al's (1995) Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale were used to collect data. To analyze the data, Pearson's correlation coefficient and path analysis were used using SPSS-18 and AMOS-18 software. The obtained results showed that the direct effect of four variables of narcissism and marital quality on marital instability was confirmed (p<0.05). The direction of the effect of narcissism on marriage instability was positive and the direction of the effect of marital quality on marriage instability was negative. The strongest effect on marital instability was related to marital quality with a coefficient of -0.50 and narcissism with a coefficient of 0.47. Also, the mediating role of marital quality in the relationship between narcissism and ego empowerment was confirmed (p<0.05). The results of the research showed that the design of a suitable structural model for predicting marriage instability based on dark personality and ego strength with the mediation of marital quality in married women is consistent with the theoretical model and has a favorable fit. Therefore, in order to increase marital satisfaction, it is possible to improve and guarantee the stability of marriage by knowing the personality characteristics of people and the level of marital quality and the contrast of their internal psychological elements.