Background & Aims: Marriage is the initiating stage of making a family and is one of the most important social and intimate human relationships. Among the important aspects of a marital system that spouses experience in marriage are sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment. Sexual satisfaction is one of the physiological needs that contributes to human health and the study of sexual satisfaction and physical and psychological stress and the elimination of satisfaction disorder is one of the main concerns of researchers in this field. Although commitment is an important resource in married life, spiritual intelligence can provide the ability to achieve the desired level of sexual satisfaction. This study aimed to predict the levels of sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment based on the variables of spiritual intelligence and marital commitment in couples who referred to counseling centers in Kermanshah. In examining the variables affecting the level of marriage satisfaction, this study attempted to answer the question of whether the variables of spiritual intelligence and marital commitment affect sexuality and marital adjustment in couples.
Methods: The present study is a descriptive-analytical research in terms of implementation and an applied research in terms of purpose. The statistical population of the study is all couples in Kermanshah who have been married for at least 2 years. For the sample size, among the eight districts of Kermanshah, District 1 was selected and among the counseling centers of these areas, 4 counseling centers with a number of one hundred couples, i.e. two hundred people (one hundred women and one hundred men) were selected by available sampling method. Larson et al.'s (1998) Sexual Satisfaction Questionnaire, Spinner’s (1976) Marital adjustment, King's Spiritual Intelligence (2008), and Adams and Jones’s (1997) Marital Commitment Questionnaires were used to collect research data. In order to analyze the research data, descriptive statistics, including mean and standard deviation, and inferential statistics, including Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis, were used. SPSS statistical analysis software version 21 was used to analyze the research data. Significance level in this study was 0.05.
Results: Examination of the demographic characteristics of the subjects shows that 50% of the subjects (100 people) were male and 50% of the subjects (100 people) were women. The mean age of the subjects was 37.24 ± 7.630 and ranged from 20 to 60 years.
According to the results of the present study, Pearson correlation coefficients between the variables of sexual satisfaction with spiritual intelligence, marital adjustment, and marital commitment were statistically positive and significant at the level of P≥0.01. In addition, Pearson correlation coefficients between marital adjustment with spiritual intelligence and marital commitment were statistically positive and significant at the level of P≥0.01. Also, Pearson correlation coefficients between spiritual intelligence and marital commitment were statistically positive and significant at the level of P≥0.05.
To ensure the observation of the underlying assumptions, multiple linearity assumption was examined before analyzing the data. For both variables of sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment, tolerance statistics (and variance inflation factor) were obtained for the variables of spiritual intelligence and marital commitment 0.86 (1.13) and 0.86 (1.13), respectively. As the results show, the obtained tolerance values for the variables are above 0.10 that indicate the absence of multiple linearity between the variables. Also, the value of the obtained inflation factor variance for the variables is less than 10, which indicates no multiple linearity between the variables.
Considering the values of t, it is observed that the effect of all components in the regression equation is significant (P≥0.01). Spiritual intelligence and marital commitment play an important role in explaining sexual satisfaction, and the factor of spiritual intelligence and marital commitment explain 0.271% of the variance related to sexual satisfaction. Additionally, spiritual intelligence and marital commitment play an important role in explaining marital adjustment, and the factor of spiritual intelligence and marital commitment explains 0.273% of the variance related to marital adjustment.
Conclusion: This study aimed to predict the levels of sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment based on the variables of spiritual intelligence and marital commitment in couples referring to counseling centers in Kermanshah. The present results showed a positive and significant relationship between the variables of sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment with spiritual intelligence and marital commitment. Sexual satisfaction is one of the most important factors in marital satisfaction, and those who are more sexually satisfied report significantly better quality of life than those who are not sexually satisfied.
Many factors can affect a couple's sexual satisfaction. One of these factors is spiritual intelligence. Spiritual intelligence as one of the new concepts of intelligence, includes a kind of adaptation and problem-solving behavior that includes the highest level of development in various areas of cognitive, moral, emotional, interpersonal, and etc. and helps the person to coordinate with the surrounding phenomena and achieve internal and external integration. This intelligence gives the person a general insight towards life and all experiences and events and enables him to frame and reinterpret his experiences to deepen his cognition and knowledge.
Also, in explaining the relationship between marital commitment with sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment, it can be stated that reducing commitment between the couples causes sexual disorders and consequently reduces couples' sexual satisfaction. Men in marital life consider the quality of their sexual relationship as a criterion of relationship satisfaction, love, and commitment. As a result, the more satisfied they are with their sex, the more satisfied they are with their marriage and experience more love and commitment.
Therefore, in order to increase sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment, the components of spiritual intelligence and marital commitment should be considered as two effective and important factors.
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