Predicting Marital Conflicts Based on Dysfunctional Attitudes Mediated by Emotion Regulation

Abstract: The aim of this study was to predict marital conflicts based on dysfunctional attitudes with a mediating role of emotion regulation. This was a descriptive correlational study in which the relationship between variables was examined using a structural equation model. The statistical population of the study included all couples (with marital conflict problems) who referred to counseling centers in Shiraz in the winter of 2020. The participants were 394 who were selected by purposive sampling. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. For data collection, Sanai Marital Conflict Questionnaire, Ebrahimi and Ghafoor Mousavi Dysfunctional Attitudes Questionnaire and Garnefski Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) were used. The results exhibited that the components of dysfunctional attitudes (except for the vulnerability-performance evaluation) had a positive and significant relationship with the components of marital conflict. Positive cognitive emotion regulation strategies had a negative and significant relationship with the components of marital conflict, while negative cognitive emotion regulation strategies had a positive and significant relationship with the components of marital conflict. The results indicated that the tested model benefits from favorable fit indices. Also, dysfunctional attitudes mediated by emotion regulation, predicted the marital conflicts. In general, the findings of the present study support the role of cognitive factors in marital conflicts of couples with the mediating role of emotional regulation.