Assessing the Relationship between Marital Satisfaction and Conflict Communication Styles of Married Turkish Women

Abstract

This research was conducted to determine the relationship between marital satisfaction experienced by Turkish women and their conflict communication styles. The research also assessed the impact of the descriptive characteristics of women on these variables. The study amassed descriptive and cross-sectional data from May to September 2012, with the sample set consisting of 25,084 married women registered in the Erzincan provincial center of northeastern Turkey. The sample size was set using sampling with a finite population of at least 378 married women by getting p = 0.05, he sampling error of 0.05 and the formula at the limit of 95% confidence level. In practice, it does not stay at the lower limit. The data was collected using the Survey Form, Marriage Life Scale (MLS) and Conflict Communication Scale (CSS) from 418 women living in the city center. The analysis of the data was made with descriptive statistics, t test, Kruskal Wallis, correlation, and variance tests, and the result was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The mean age of women who participated in this study was found to be 35.88 ± 9.23, and the MLS mean score was found to be 34.29 ± 5.10. The mean score of the subscale of expressing feelings was found to be 67.35 ± 8.94, and the mean score of the subscale of close up/avoidance was found to be 63.28 ± 7.90. It was determined that a significant and positive relationship existed between women’s marital satisfaction scores and their expression of feelings (p < 0.05). The mean score of women’s marital satisfaction was generally found at a good level. Therefore, this study identified a relation between women’s marital satisfaction and their styles of conflict.