Date
12-19-2022
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)
Chair
Dwight Rice
Keywords
marital satisfaction, attachment styles, emotional intelligence, religious commitment, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance
Disciplines
Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Moitinho, Denise Dos Santos, "Marital Satisfaction and Attachment Style: The Mediating Role of Emotional Intelligence and Religious Commitment" (2022). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 4042.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/4042
Abstract
Most couples enter marriage hoping to experience happiness and satisfaction. This study acknowledges that spouses bring their worldviews, personalities, behaviors, and emotions to the marriage relationship, and for this reason, this study investigates the connection between marital satisfaction and attachment style as mediated by emotional intelligence and religious commitment in a sample of heterosexual married Christian individuals living in the United States. This quantitative, non-experimental, survey-based research analyzes data collected through Amazon Mechanical Turk from 530 married individuals to understand the relationship between variables affecting marital satisfaction. Results from Pearson’s correlation analyses show a significant relationship between attachment style subscales (avoidance and anxiety) and marital satisfaction (p < .05). Additionally, a comprehensive mediation analysis shows that the attachment style subscales of avoidance and anxiety in the mother and father relationship have an indirect effect on marital satisfaction through both emotional intelligence and religious commitment. Thus, future studies need to consider marriage relationship dynamics, spouses’ management of emotions, and the protective role of religion in the marriage relationship.
