Relationship between Attachment Style and Alexithymia With Marital Dissatisfaction

Abstract

Background: Marital quality is deeply associated with its psychological, physical, and emotional aspects. Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between marital dissatisfaction and variables of attachment styles and alexithymia. Patients and Methods: This research method is descriptive and correlational. The population study comprised 400 parents of female students in Tehran during the academic year of 2013 - 2014. The study sample was selected using multistage cluster sampling method. The Pearson correlational coefficient and multivariate regression methods have been used for data analysis. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS 18. Results: The results showed a significant negative correlation between secure style and marital satisfaction (P = 0.001, r = -0.154). Also, significant relationships were observed between marital dissatisfaction and variables of insecure style (P = 0.001, r = 0.243), ambivalent style (P = 0.001, r = 0.247), difficulty in emotional identification (P = 0.001, r = 0.335), and external orientation (P = 0.001, r = 0.286). However, there was no significant relationship between marital dissatisfaction and difficulty in describing emotions (P = 0.001, r = 0.033). Conclusions: The results have shown a significant negative correlation between secure style and marital dissatisfaction. There were positive significant relationships between marital dissatisfaction and variables of insecure style, ambivalent style, difficulty in identifying emotions, and externally oriented thinking, but there was not any significant relationship between marital dissatisfaction and difficulty in emotional expression.