Examining the role of psychological well-being and sexual satisfaction in predicting marital adjustment

With the increase in divorce rates in recent years, the frequency and importance of studies on marital adjustment between couples as well as the factors affecting marital adjustment between couples have escalated. The level of stress, anxiety and depression that play a vital role in the psychological well-being of individuals are closely related to marital adjustment. Interwoven with this argument is the role of sexual satisfaction in marital adjustment that has become a widely studied concept. Nevertheless, there has been no study examining the impacts of stress, anxiety, depression and sexual satisfaction on marital adjustment in married couples between 0-5 years when divorce rates are frequently discerned. In light of this context, the aim of this study is to investigate the predictive role of depression, anxiety symptoms, stress and sexual satisfaction levels on marital adjustment in a non-clinical sample of individuals married between 0-5 years. The sample of the study consists of 95 married couples (95 females, 95 males, total 190 people) between the ages of 21-50 (Mean = 30.08, SD = 5.70). Sociodemographic and Marriage-Related Data Form, Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS), Depression, Anxiety, Stress-21 Scale (DASS-21) and New Sexual Satisfaction Scale (NSSS) were given to the participants via an online survey platform. In order to examine and evaluate the differentiating effects of sociodemographic-marital variables on the dependent variable, descriptive analyses and independent groups t-test were conducted. Furthermore, correlation and regression analyses to test research hypotheses were used by IBM SPSS 26.0. The ultimate results have demonstrated that both for women and men, the stress level of individuals negatively predicted the marital adjustment, whereas anxiety symptoms did not predict marital adjustment. The partner-sexual activity-centered subscale for women and the self-centered subscale for men significantly and positively predicted marital adjustment. Moreover, the level of depression negatively predicted marital adjustment only in males.