The Relationship between Self-Worth and Communication Styles and Marital Adjustment in Women

Introduction: One of the most important roles of the studies and researches conducted on the family and espousal relationships has been devoted to the marital adjustment. Different surveys and studied have found that various factors such as personal characteristics and communication skills have affected the quality of the marital adjustment a lot. Objectives: The main purpose of the present study is to have a survey on the relationship between self-worth and communication styles and the marital adjustment. Methodology: The present study is a correlational survey. Its subjects included 148 married women who were the parents of the children studying in the kindergartens and pre-school centers in Ghorveh in the year 1394.The sampling procedure was a cluster sampling method. In this survey three marital adjustment scales were used: Dyadic Adjustment Scale (1976), Contingencies Self-Worth Questionnaire (Crocker & Wolfe, 2003) and the Communication Style Questionnaire (Christenson & Sullaway, 1984). Results: The results of the survey showed that there is no significant correlation between self-worth and marital adjustment in general but the external aspects of self-worth (scientific qualification and competency, competition and competitiveness, appearance and being approved by others) had a significant negative correlation with the marital adjustment. The results also indicated that there is significant correlation between communication styles and marital adjustment in a way that there was a significant positive correlation between the scores of the interactive constructive style and marital adjustment but there was a significant negative relationship between the scores of the avoidant style and demand/withdraw style and marital adjustment. Conclusion: The results of the present survey show that the external self-worth has a significant negative effect on the marital adjustment. In addition, communication styles (interactive constructive communication) of women have significant positive effects on marital adjustment directly but avoidant style and demand/withdraw style have significant negative effects on the marital adjustment. Family counselors can actively involve themselves in instructing the mutual interactive constructive styles and try to reduce the effects of the external self-worth on the marital adjustment in their own treatments and interventions.