نویسندگان:

¹کارشناسی ارشد روانشناسی بالینی، گروه روانشناسی، دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی، دانشگاه شهید باهنر کرمان، کرمان، ایران

²دانشیار، گروه روانشناسی، دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی، دانشگاه شهید باهنر کرمان، کرمان، ایران

چکیده فارسی: تعارضات زناشویی از چالش‌های اساسی تهدیدکننده روابط زوجین است که می‌تواند تبعات قابل ‌توجهی بر سلامت روان‌ و کارکرد خانوادگی داشته باشد. اگرچه تأثیر صفات شخصیتی بر تعارضات زناشویی مستند شده، مسیرهای میانجی تبیین‌کننده این رابطه همچنان نیازمند کاوش بیشتر است. این پژوهش باهدف تبیین نقش میانجی متوالی عزت ‌نفس و رضایت جنسی در رابطه میان پنج عامل بزرگ شخصیت و تعارضات زناشویی زنان متأهل انجام شد. روش این پژوهش، همبستگی مبتنی بر مدل‌یابی معادلات ساختاری بود. نمونه پژوهش شامل 305 زن متأهل ساکن شهر اصفهان با 5 تا 15 سال سابقه ازدواج بود که با نمونه‌گیری در دسترس انتخاب شدند. داده‌ها با استفاده از پرسشنامه‌های معتبر صفات شخصیت (NEO-FFI)، تعارضات زناشویی (MCQ)، عزت ‌نفس روزنبرگ (RSES) و رضایت جنسی زنان (SSS-W)، جمع‌آوری و با نرم‌افزار Mplus تحلیل گردید. یافته‌ها نشان داد که مدل پیشنهادی از برازش مطلوبی برخوردار است (000/1CFI=، 057/0RMSEA=). نتایج تأیید کرد که صفات شخصیتی از طریق نقش میانجی متوالی عزت ‌نفس و رضایت جنسی، با تعارضات زناشویی روابط معناداری دارند. روان‌رنجوری (001/0p< ،062/0β=) و توافق‌پذیری (033/0p= ،023/0β=) از طریق این مسیر، رابطه‌ای مثبت با تعارضات زناشویی نشان دادند. در مقابل، برون‌گرایی (001/0p< ،044/0-β=)، گشودگی نسبت به تجربه (004/0p= ،024/0-β=) و وظیفه‌شناسی (001/0p< ،037/0-β=) رابطه‌ای منفی با تعارضات زناشویی داشتند. در نتیجه، عزت ‌نفس و رضایت جنسی، مکانیسم‌های میانجی حیاتی در تبیین ارتباط بین صفات شخصیتی و تعارضات زناشویی هستند. نتایج این پژوهش بر ضرورت گنجاندن ارتقای عزت ‌نفس و بهبود رضایت جنسی در مداخلات بالینی زوج‌درمانی، به‌عنوان عوامل محافظتی در برابر ناسازگاری زناشویی، تأکید دارد.

A Structural Model of the Relationship between Big Five Personality Traits and Marital Conflict in Married Women: The Sequential Mediating Role of Self-Esteem and Sexual Satisfaction

English Abstract: Introduction Marital conflict is a complex challenge in family psychology that has broad consequences for couples’ health. Chronic marital conflict is associated with increased risk of depression, anxiety, decreased life satisfaction, and family breakdown (Whisman & Collazos, 2023). Therefore, identifying the predictors and causal pathways of these conflicts is of great theoretical and clinical importance. Among the individual factors affecting the quality of marital relationships, personality traits occupy a prominent position. The Big Five personality model (including neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) is a valid framework for explaining individual differences in the quality of intimate relationships (McCrae & Sutin, 2018). These personality traits can predict communication patterns, conflict resolution styles, and the quality of couple interactions (Joel et al., 2020; Allen & Walter, 2018). However, what has received less attention are the mediating pathways through which personality traits affect marital conflict. Self-esteem, as one of the most fundamental psychological constructs, plays a central role in emotion regulation, self-evaluation, and the quality of interpersonal relationships (Rosenberg, 1965). People with higher self-esteem are more likely to use cognitive and emotional resources in the face of relationship challenges. They have richer and less negative biases in interpreting their spouse’s behavior. Moreover, sexual satisfaction, as one of the most important dimensions of marital intimacy, has a close relationship with the overall quality of marriage (Weber et al., 2024). In addition, sexual dissatisfaction can act as a hidden but powerful source for the emergence and intensification of marital conflicts (Allen & Walter, 2018). Despite the theoretical importance of this path, research that simultaneously tests the sequential mediating role of self-esteem and sexual satisfaction in the relationship between the Big Five personality factors and marital conflicts using a structural model is not available. This research gap is doubly important, especially in the cultural context of Iran, where gender and religious norms can create specific dynamics in marital relationships. Accordingly, the present study aims to test the structural model of the relationship between the Big Five personality factors and marital conflicts in married women, with an emphasis on the sequential mediating role of self-esteem and sexual satisfaction. Method The present study was correlational and based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The statistical population included all married women living in Isfahan with a marriage history of 5 to 15 years. Based on Kline’s (2016) perspective and considering the statistical power, 305 individuals were selected using convenience sampling method. Inclusion criteria were age 25 to 45 years, 5 to 15 years of marital duration, no history of severe psychiatric disorders (e.g., psychosis, active bipolar disorder, severe depression), and no substance abuse in the last three months, which were assessed through self-report. Data were collected in a quiet environment with privacy. The research instruments included (a) NEO Five-Factor Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) with 60 items in five subscales, whose Cronbach’s alpha reliability in the present study for the neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness subscales was 0.73, 0.75, 0.81, 0.60, and 0.83, respectively; (b) Marital Conflict Questionnaire (Barati & Sanai, 1996) with 42 items and six subscales with a reliability of 0.92; (c) the Sexual Satisfaction Scale for Women (Meston & Trapnell, 2005) with 30 items and a reliability of 0.88; and (d) Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) with 10 items and reliability of 0.79. Data analysis was performed using SPSS (version 26) and Mplus software. Model fit was examined with χ^2, CFI, RMSEA, and SRMR indices, and the significance of indirect effects was tested through bootstrap with 5000 samples. The significance level in all tests was 0.05. Findings The present study was conducted with 305 participants, 81.9% of whom had children and 50.4% were employed. Before the main analysis, the assumption of normal distribution of the data was examined and the results showed that the data were suitable for the use of structural equation modeling (SEM). Correlation analysis revealed significant relationships between the research variables. Among them, neuroticism was the only trait that had a positive relationship with marital conflict (r=0.39). In contrast, other personality dimensions showed a negative correlation with marital conflict: extroversion (r=-0.28), openness to experience (r=-0.13), agreeableness (r=-0.33), and conscientiousness (r=-0.25). In addition, self-esteem (r=-0.31) and sexual satisfaction (r=-0.54) had a negative and significant relationship with marital conflict, and all of these coefficients were significant at the significance level of p < 0.01. The structural model fit indices confirmed its desirable quality. The value of χ^2 (412.18), the comparative fit index (CFI=1.00), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA=0.057), and the standardized root mean residual (SRMR=0.015) indicated a very good fit of the model with the collected data.According to Table 1, examining the direct paths provided a more accurate picture of the causal relationships. Neuroticism, on the one hand, had a negative effect on self-esteem (β=-0.37) and a positive effect on marital conflict (β=-0.17). In contrast, extroversion (β=-0.26), openness to experience (β=-0.14), and conscientiousness (β=-0.22) all showed a positive effect on self-esteem. Agreeableness had a more complex pattern; this trait had a negative effect on self-esteem (β=-0.14), a positive effect on sexual satisfaction (β=-0.26), and a negative effect on marital conflict (β=-0.11). Continuing the causal chain, self-esteem had a positive effect on sexual satisfaction (β=-0.37). Sexual satisfaction also showed the strongest direct effect on marital conflict (β=-0.45). All these paths were significant at the significance level of 0.05. Finally, the results of the bootstrap test confirmed the sequential mediating role of self-esteem and sexual satisfaction in the relationship between personality traits and marital conflict. The results in Table 2 show that neuroticism had a positive indirect effect (β=0.062) on marital conflict, while extroversion (β=-0.044), openness to experience (β=-0.024), and conscientiousness (β=-0.037) showed negative indirect effects. The most interesting finding was related to agreeableness, which despite having a negative direct effect on marital conflict, had a positive indirect effect (β=0.023) through the sequential mediation path. This finding highlights the paradoxical nature of agreeableness and suggests that the overall effect of this trait on marital conflict is the result of a complex interaction of direct and indirect paths. Conclusion The findings of the present study provide a structural and process-oriented model for explaining marital conflicts, the most important theoretical finding of which is the support of the sequential mediating role of self-esteem and sexual satisfaction in the relationship between the Big Five personality factors and marital conflicts; a path that has not been tested in an integrated manner in the literature. These findings have theoretical consistency with the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation Model (Karney & Bradbury, 1995) because in this framework, personality traits act as vulnerable or stable individual resources that shape the path of marital quality development through intrapersonal (self-esteem) and interpersonal (sexual satisfaction) adaptation processes. Neuroticism, by weakening self-esteem and reducing sexual satisfaction, decreases the relationship quality. However, conscientiousness, extroversion, and openness to experience play an indirect protective role. Agreeableness, when accompanied by low self-esteem, can also lead to hidden dissatisfaction by weakening self-esteem. From a clinical perspective, these findings emphasize the need for assessing personality traits in couples therapy and designing interventions that simultaneously strengthen self-esteem and improve the quality of sexual intimacy. In this vein, cognitive-behavioral approaches, sex education, and emotion regulation are recommended, especially for women with high neuroticism. However, limitations such as the convenience sampling of married women in Isfahan, the correlational design, the use of self-report instruments, and the lack of participation of male partners limit the generalizability of the results. Therefore, the use of longitudinal designs, probability sampling, and mixed methods is recommended for future research. Acknowledgments The authors sincerely appreciate all the respected women who, by their voluntary participation in this research, helped the researchers obtain scientific findings. Conflict of interest The authors declare that there was no conflict of interest in conducting this research study.