The Mediator Role of Spousal Self-Disclosure in the Relationship between Marital Satisfaction and Spousal Support*

Abstract

This study addresses the mediator role of spousal self-disclosure in the relationship between the spousal support and satisfaction with the marriage. For this purpose, data was collected from 549 married volunteers who lived in Ankara, had a wage-earning job, and who were at least high-school graduates. The married participants of the study were applied the data collection instruments of “Marital Life Scale”, “Spousal Support Scale” and “Self-Disclosure to Spouse Scale”. A relational screening model was used to study the relationship among the variables of spousal support, satisfaction with the marriage, and spousal self-disclosure. The mediator role of spousal self-disclosure in the relationship between spousal support and satisfaction with the marriage was tested by a structural equality model. The software LISREL 8.8 was used to test the model of the study. The relations among the variables were analyzed by path coefficients. Based on an examination of the path coefficients, the hypothesis that the mediator role of spousal self-disclosure in the relationship between the latent variable of spousal support and marital satisfaction is statistically significant was accepted. In sum, the mediation effect of the variables of spousal self-disclosure and the spousal support explain marital satisfaction. The findings of the study revealed that the variable of spousal self-disclosure has a full mediator role in the relationship between marital satisfaction and spousal support. As a result of these findings, it is fair to say that married couples who disclose themselves more deeply and sincerely to each other have a stronger and more effective perception of intimacy and support, thus married couples are able to display more flexible and appropriate behaviors to their spouse, improving the quality of their support with the advantages of self-disclosure. One can say that a healthy self-disclosure between the couples makes the social support that the spouses perceive from each other clear, fluent and fit for the needs, and increase their marital satisfaction. In this study, marital satisfaction was analyzed under a structural model with the variables of spousal support and spousal self-disclosure. Marital satisfaction may be examined with different variables that may be supported with theoretical grounds to plan new research.